David Farnor | On 30, Jan 2021

The nominations for the 2021 Independent Spirit Awards were announced this week, and Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Netflix are leading the pack.

Eliza Hittman’s powerful abortion drama has seven nominations, the most of any picture and just ahead of Minari with six and Nomadland with five. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, however, also has five nominations to its name, and that high-profile contender highlights Netflix’s presence in the awards race: the streamer has 16 nominations in total between all of its movies, ahead of Focus Features and A24, with ten and nine apiece.

They include The Forty-Year-Old Version, up for Best First Feature against Amazon’s Sound of Metal, The Half Of It, up for Best Screenplay, opposite Promising Young Woman, Bad Education, Minari and Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and The White Tiger, nominated for Best Male Lead along with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Sound of Metal, Bull and Minari.

The awards are also including TV shows for the first time, with nominees for Best New Scripted Series including BBC One’s Small Axe and I May Destroy You, Netflix’s Unorthodox, A Teacher and Apple TV+ anthology Little America. Elle Fanning is nominated for her performance in STARZPLAY’s The Great, while I May Destroy You will be presented with the prize for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.

The winners will be announced on 22nd April. Here’s the full list of nominees:

BEST FEATURE

FIRST COW
Producers: Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Producers: Todd Black, Denzel Washington, Dany Wolf

MINARI
Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Producers: Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski

NOMADLAND
Producers: Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao

BEST FIRST FEATURE

I CARRY YOU WITH ME
Director/Producer: Heidi Ewing

Producers: Edher Campos, Mynette Louie, Gabriela Maire

THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION
Director/Producer: Radha Blank

Producers: Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jordan Fudge, Rishi Rajani, Jennifer Semler, Lena Waithe

MISS JUNETEENTH
Director: Channing Godfrey Peoples

Producers: Toby Halbrooks, Tim Headington, Jeanie Igoe, James M. Johnston, Theresa Steele Page, Neil Creque Williams

NINE DAYS
Director: Edson Oda

Producers: Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthew Lindner, Laura Tunstall, Datari Turner

SOUND OF METAL
Director: Darius Marder

Producers: Bill Benz, Kathy Benz, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche

BEST DIRECTOR

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Kelly Reichardt, First Cow

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

BEST SCREENPLAY

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Mike Makowsky, Bad Education

Alice Wu, The Half of It

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Kitty Green, The Assistant

Noah Hutton, Lapsis

Channing Godfrey Peoples, Miss Juneteenth

Andy Siara, Palm Springs

James Sweeney, Straight Up

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS
Writer/Director/Producer: Robert Machoian

Producers: Scott Christopherson, Clayne Crawford

LA LEYENDA NEGRA
Writer/Director: Patricia Vidal Delgado

Producers: Alicia Herder, Marcel Perez

LINGUA FRANCA
Writer/Director/Producer: Isabel Sandoval

Producers: Darlene Catly Malimas, Jhett Tolentino, Carlo Velayo

RESIDUE
Writer/Director: Merawi Gerima

SAINT FRANCES
Director/Producer: Alex Thompson

Writer: Kelly O’Sullivan

Producers: James Choi, Pierce Cravens, Ian Keiser, Eddie Linker, Raphael Nash, Roger Welp

BEST MALE LEAD

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal

Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Adarsh Gourav, The White Tiger

Rob Morgan, Bull

Steven Yeun, Minari

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Julia Garner, The Assistant

Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Colman Domingo, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Orion Lee, First Cow

Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

Glynn Turman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Benedict Wong, Nine Days

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Alexis Chikaeze, Miss Juneteenth

Yeri Han, Minari

Valerie Mahaffey, French Exit

Talia Ryder, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Yuh-jung Youn, Minari

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Jay Keitel, She Dies Tomorrow

Shabier Kirchner, Bull

Michael Latham, The Assistant

Hélène Louvart, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Joshua James Richards, Nomadland

BEST EDITING

Andy Canny, The Invisible Man

Scott Cummings, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Merawi Gerima, Residue

Enat Sidi, I Carry You With Me

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

BACURAU (Brazil)
Director: Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho

THE DISCIPLE (India)
Director: Chaitanya Tamahane

NIGHT OF THE KINGS (Ivory Coast)
Director: Philippe Lacôte

PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME (Hungary)
Director: Lili Horvát

QUO VADIS, AIDA? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Director: Jasmila Žbanić

BEST DOCUMENTARY

(Award given to the director and producer)

COLLECTIVE
Director/Producer: Alexander Nanau

Producers: Hanka Kastelicová, Bernard Michaux, Bianca Oana

CRIP CAMP
Directors/Producers: Jim LeBrecht, Nicole Newnham

Producer: Sara Bolder

DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
Director/Producer: Kirsten Johnson

Producers: Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness

THE MOLE AGENT
Director: Maite Alberdi

Producer: Marcela Santibáñez

TIME
Director/Producer: Garrett Bradley

Producers: Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

(Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
Director: Regina King

Casting Directors: Kimberly R. Hardin

Ensemble Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr.

PRODUCERS AWARD

Lucas Joaquin

Gerry Kim

Kara Durrett

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

DAVID MIDELL
Director of The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

EKWA MSANGI
Director of Farewell Amor

ANNIE SILVERSTEIN
Director of Bull

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

CECILIA ALDARONDO
Director of Landfall

ELEGANCE BRATTON
Director of Pier Kids

ELIZABETH LO
Director of Stray

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES

ATLANTA’S MISSING AND MURDERED: THE LOST CHILDREN
Executive Producers: Jeff Dupre, Joshua Bennett, Sam Pollard, Maro Chermayeff, John Legend, Mike Jackson, Ty Stiklorius

CITY SO REAL
Produced by: Zak Piper, Steve James

Executive Producers: Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Alex Kotlowitz, Gordon Quinn, Betsy Steinberg, Jolene Pinder

IMMIGRATION NATION
Executive Producers: Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson

Co-Executive Producers: Andrey Alistratov, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Lauren Haber

LOVE FRAUD
Executive Producers: Rachel Grady, Heidi Ewing, Amy Goodman Kass, Vinnie Malhotra, Jihan Robinson, Michael Bloom, Maria Zuckerman

WE’RE HERE
Creators/Executive Producers: Stephen Warren, Johnnie Ingram

Executive Producers: Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, Peter LoGreco

Co-Executive Producers: Erin Haglund, Sabrina Mar

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

I MAY DESTROY YOU
Creator/Executive Producer: Michaela Coel

Executive Producers: Phil Clarke, Roberto Troni

LITTLE AMERICA
Executive Producers: Lee Eisenberg, Joshuah Bearman, Joshua Davis, Arthur Spector, Alan Yang, Siân Heder, Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon

SMALL AXE
Executive Producers: Tracey Scoffield, David Tanner, Steve McQueen

A TEACHER
Creator/Executive Producer: Hannah Fidell

Executive Producers: Michael Costigan, Kate Mara, Louise Shore, Jason Bateman, Danny Brocklehurst

Co-Executive Producer: Daniel Pipski

UNORTHODOX
Creator/Executive Producer: Anna Winger

Creator: Alexa Karolinski

Executive Producer: Henning Kamm

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

Elle Fanning, The Great

Shira Haas, Unorthodox

Abby McEnany, Work in Progress

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Never Have I Ever

Jordan Kristine Seamón, We Are Who We Are

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Adam Ali, Little America

Nicco Annan, P-Valley

Conphidance, Little America

Amit Rahav, Unorthodox

Harold Torres, ZeroZeroZero

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

I MAY DESTROY YOU
Cast: Michaela Coel, Paapa Essiedu, Weruche Opia, Stephen Wight

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