The winners of the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced on Sunday, March 6. The ceremony, hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, honored the best in independent film and television in 2021. Held at the Santa Monica Pier in California, the event aired at 5 p.m. PT/2 p.m. ET on IFC and streamed on AMC Plus.
The Spirit Awards have traditionally been held the Saturday before the Oscars ceremony. However, Film Independent announced that it would move the ceremony up by three weeks this year as a way of boosting its impact on the Oscars race, following the cancellation of the Golden Globes telecast.
“Zola” led the film categories with seven nominations, including best feature, best director and female lead and supporting male nods. Closely following was “The Novice” with five nominations and “The Lost Daughter” and “Wild Indian” with four nominations each. In the television categories, six shows were nominated twice: “Blindspotting,” “It’s a Sin,” “Rutherford Falls,” “Them: Covenant,” “The Underground Railroad” and “We Are Lady Parts.” In addition, “Reservation Dogs,” which was nominated for best new scripted series, will be presented with an award for best television ensemble cast during the ceremony.
During the ceremony, the Robert Altman award, given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast, will be awarded to the crew of “Mass,” Fran Kranz’s film about four parents meeting after a school shooting. Film Independent also already announced the three winners of their Emerging Filmmaker Grant, which gives $25,000 cash grants to three winners. Alex Camilleri (“Luzzu”) won the Someone to Watch Award, Lizzie Shapiro (“Shiva Baby”) won the Producers Award and Jessica Beshir (“Faya Dayi”) won the Truer Than Fiction Award.
See all the nominations below. The list will be updated live with winners:
Best Director
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Lost Daughter”
Janicza Bravo, “Zola”
Lauren Hadaway, “The Novice”
Mike Mills, “C’mon C’mon”
Ninja Thyberg, “Pleasure”
Best Cinematography
Passing (Eduard Grau)
“A Chiara” (Tim Curtin)
“Blue Bayou” (Matthew Chuang and Ante Cheng)
“The Humans” (Lol Crawley)
“Zola” (Ari Wegner)
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
Reservation Dogs — Paulina Alexis, Funny Bone, Lane Factor, Devery Jacobs, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, Sarah Podemski and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai
Best Female Performance in a New Scripted Series
Thuso Mbedu, “The Underground Railroad”
Anjana Vasan, “We Are Lady Parts”
Jana Schmieding, “Rutherford Falls”
Jasmine Cephas Jones, “Blindspotting”
Deborah Ayorinde, “THEM: Covenant”
Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series
Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game”
Olly Alexander, “It’s a Sin”
Michael Greyeyes, “Rutherford Falls”
Murray Bartlett, “The White Lotus”
Ashley Thomas, “THEM: Covenant”
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
“Black and Missing”
“The Choe Show”
“The Lady and The Dale”
“Nuclear Family”
“Philly D.A.”
Best New Scripted Series
“Reservation Dogs”
“Blindspotting”
“It’s a Sin”
“The Underground Railroad”
“We Are Lady Parts”
Best Supporting Female
Ruth Negga, “Passing”
Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter”
Amy Forsyth, “The Novice”
Revika Reustle, “Pleasure”
Suzanna Son, “Red Rocket”
Best Screenplay
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Lost Daughter”
Nikole Beckwith, “Together Together”
Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris, “Zola”
Mike Mills, “C’mon C’mon”
Todd Stephens, “Swan Song”
Best Editing
“Zola” (Joi McMillon)
“A Chiara” (Affonso Gonçalves)
“The Nowhere Inn” (Ali Greer)
“The Novice” (Nathan Nugent and Lauren Hadaway)
“The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain” (Enrico Natale)
Best First Feature
“7 Days”
“Holler”
“Queen of Glory”
“Test Pattern”
“Wild Indian”
Best First Screenplay
Michael Sarnoski; Story by Vanessa Block, Michael Sarnoski, “Pig”
Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr., “Wild Indian ”
Matt Fifer; Story by Sheldon D. Brown, “Cicada”
Shatara Michelle Ford, “Test Pattern ”
Fran Kranz, “Mass”
Best Documentary
“Summer of Soul”
“Ascension”
“Flee”
“In The Same Breath”
“Procession”
John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
“Shiva Baby”
“Cryptozoo”
“Jockey”
“Sweet Thing”
“This is Not a War Story”
Best Supporting Male
Troy Kotsur, “CODA”
Colman Domingo, “Zola”
Meeko Gattuso, “Queen of Glory”
Will Patton, “Sweet Thing”
Chaske Spencer, “Wild Indian”
Best Feature
“A Chiara”
“C’mon C’mon”
“The Lost Daughter”
“The Novice”
“Zola”
Best Male Lead
Clifton Collins Jr., “Jockey”
Frankie Faison, “Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain”
Michael Greyeyes, “Wild Indian”
Udo Kier, “Swan Song”
Simon Rex, “Red Rocket”
Best Female Lead
Isabelle Fuhrman, “The Novice”
Brittany S. Hall, “Test Pattern”
Patti Harrison, “Together Together”
Taylour Paige, “Zola”
Kali Reis, “Catch the Fair One”
Best International Film
“Compartment No. 6”
“Drive My Car”
“Parallel Mothers”
“Pebbles”
“Petite Maman”
“Prayers for the Stolen”
Producers Award
Lizzie Shapiro
Brad Becker-Parton
Pin-Chun Liu
Someone to Watch Award
Alex Camilleri, “Luzzu”
Michael Sarnoski, “Pig”
Gillian Wallace Horvat, “I Blame Society”
“The Truer Than Fiction Award”
Jessica Beshir, “Faya Dayi”
Angelo Madsen Minax, “North By Current”
Jessica Beshir, “Faya Dayi”
Debbie Lum, “Try Harder!”