2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced

Steven Yeun and Alan S. Kim in Minari

(Photo by Melissa Lukenbaugh/©A24)

This morning, Film Independent announced nominations for the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Laverne Cox and previous Spirit Award winners Barry Jenkins and Olivia Wilde presented the nominations via YouTube, revealing that 57% of the nominees in the writer-director categories are women and 48% of them are BIPOC, while the latter also made up 69% of all the acting nominations.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always sparked some much-needed rejuvenation for the 2021 season with seven nominations, followed by Minari with six, and both were nominated for Best Feature and Best Director alongside Oscar front runner Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland. For the first time, the Spirit Awards recognized exceptional television, and the Apple series Little America and the Netflix series Unorthodox led those nominations with three each. As has been the case with every major ceremony this year, Netflix led with 16 nominations, followed by Focus Features with 10 and A24, the studio that typically dominates the annual celebration of independent film, close behind with nine total nominations.

One Night in Miami was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director, and an ensemble cast, and HBO’s I May Destroy You was selected for the same honor on the television side.

Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Thursday, April 22, 2021. In a one-time break from tradition, the awards ceremony will move from its usual spot as a live daytime event to primetime on Thursday, broadcast live exclusively on IFC at 10pm ET / 7pm PT.

Did they get it right? See the full list of nominees below and let us know what you think of the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations in the comments.

Best Feature

Best Director

Best Screenplay

Best First Feature

Best First Screenplay

Best Male Lead

Best Female Lead

Best Supporting Male

Best Supporting Female

Best Cinematography

Best International Film

Best Documentary

Best Editing

John Cassavetes Award (Best Feature under $500,000)

Robert Altman Award (Best Ensemble)

Truer Than Fiction Award

Someone to Watch Award

Producers Award

Lucas Joaquin
Gerry Kim
Kara Durrett

Best New Scripted Series

Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series

Best Female Performance in a Scripted Series

Best Male Performance in a Scripted Series

Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series

Are you as obsessed with awards as we are? Check out our Awards Leaderboard for 2020/2021.

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Rotten Tomatoes