The deadline for voting for the Independent Spirit Awards was Friday. They ask that you see everything before voting, so for the films, I saw everything at least once and most of them twice, excluding “Promising Young Woman” and “Nomadland.” For the television series, I was able to catch a vast majority of them in their entirety. I ran out of time toward the end, so there were a few series that I could only see the selected episodes offered by Independent Spirit in the screeners.
Overall, if a category had “Promising Young Woman,” “Minari,” or “Sound of Metal,” those were my picks. I enjoyed “Nomadland” but was not blown away by it like many were. I also loved “Nine Days” but tended to like the films mentioned above a little more. “Palm Springs,” “The Invisible Man,” and “Dick Johnson Is Dead” were also some of my favorite films of the year, so picking them in their categories was easy. As far as International Feature went, the choice wasn’t easy. All four series that I voted for in the Television categories will sit with me for a while, especially the Non-Scripted “Immigration Nation,” which I hope gets more attention.
“Minari”
Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Christina Oh
A24
NOMINEES
“First Cow”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
“Nomadland”
“Sound Of Metal”
Directed by Darius Marder
Produced by Bill Benz, Kathy Benz, Bert Hamelinck, and Sacha Ben Harroche
Amazon Studios
NOMINEES
“The Forty-Year-Old Version”
“I Carry You With Me”
“Miss Juneteenth”
“Nine Days”
Emerald Fennell
“Promising Young Woman”
Focus Features
NOMINEES
Lee Isaac Chung
“Minari”
Eliza Hittman
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Kelly Reichardt
“First Cow”
Chloé Zhao
“Nomadland”
Carey Mulligan
“Promising Young Woman”
Focus Features
NOMINEES
Nicole Beharie
“Miss Juneteenth”
Viola Davis
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Sidney Flanigan
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Julia Garner
“The Assistant”
Frances McDormand
“Nomadland”
Riz Ahmed
“Sound Of Metal”
Amazon Studios
NOMINEES
Chadwick Boseman
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Adarsh Gourav
“The White Tiger”
Rob Morgan
“Bull”
Steven Yeun
“Minari”
Yuh-Jung Youn
“Minari”
A24
NOMINEES
Alexis Chikaeza
“Miss Juneteenth”
Yeri Han
“Minari”
Valerie Mahaffey
“French Exit”
Talia Ryder
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Paul Raci
“Sound Of Metal”
Amazon Studios
NOMINEES
Colman Domingo
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Orion Lee
“First Cow”
Glynn Turman
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Benedict Wong
“Nine Days”
“Promising Young Woman”
Written by Emerald Fennell
Focus Features
NOMINEES
“Bad Education”
Mike Makowsky
“The Half Of It”
Alice Wu
“Minari”
Lee Isaac Chung
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Eliza Hittman
“Palm Springs”
Written by Andy Siara
Neon | Hulu
NOMINEES
“The Assistant”
Kitty Green
“Lapsis”
Noah Hutton
“Miss Juneteenth”
Channing Godfrey Peoples
“Straight Up”
James Sweeney
“Nomadland”
Cinematography by Joshua James Richards
Searchlight Pictures
NOMINEES
“The Assistant”
Michael Latham
“Bull”
Shabier Kirchner
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Hélène Louvart
“She Dies Tomorrow”
Jay Keitel
“The Invisible Man”
Edited by Andy Canny
Universal Pictures
NOMINEES
“I Carry You With Me”
Enat Sidi
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Scott Cummings
“Nomadland”
Chloé Zhao
“Residue”
Merawi Gerima
“Dick Johnson Is Dead”
Directed and Produced by Kirsten Johnson
Produced by Katy Chevigny and Marilyn Ness
Netflix
NOMINEES
“Collective”
“Crip Camp”
“The Mole Agent”
“Time”
“Night Of The Kings”
Ivory Coast
Directed by Philippe Lacôte
Neon
NOMINEES
“Bacurau”
Brazil
“The Disciple”
India
“Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time”
Hungary
“Quo Vadis, Aida?”
Bosnia and Herzegovina
TELEVISION
“Small Axe”
Executive Produced by Tracey Scoffield, David Tanner, and Steve McQueen
Amazon Studios
NOMINEES
“I May Destroy You”
“Little America”
“A Teacher”
“Unorthodox”
“Immigration Nation”
Executive Produced by Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, and Christian Thompson
Co-Executive Produced by Andrey Alistratov, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, and Lauren Haber
Netflix
NOMINEES
“Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children”
“City So Real”
“Love Fraud”
“We’re Here”
Shira Haas
“Unorthodox”
Netflix
NOMINEES
Elle Fanning
“The Great”
Abby McEnany
“Work In Progress”
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
“Never Have I Ever”
Jordan Kristine Seamón
“We Are Who We Are”
Conphidance
“Little America”
AppleTV+
NOMINEES
Adam Ali
“Little America”
Nicco Annan
“P-Valley”
Amit Rahav
“Unorthodox”
Harold Torres
“ZeroZeroZero”
FAVORITE FILMS
LEAST FAVORITE FILMS
