‘Zola’ Leads 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

The 37th Indie Spirits will be held Sunday March 6, 2022 and broadcast on IFC

Zola
A24

“Zola,” from director Janicza Bravo and released by A24, led all Independent Spirit Awards nominations on Tuesday, picking up seven nominations including Best Feature.

The Best Feature nominees included “A Chiara,” “C’mon C’mon,” “The Lost Daughter,” “Zola” and “The Novice,” which followed with the second most nominations with five. And in the TV categories that were introduced last year, FX’s “Reservation Dogs” won the prize of Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.

“Zola” in particular scored nominations for Best Female Lead for Taylour Paige, Best Supporting Male for Colman Domingo and Best Director for Bravo. The film, which premiered at Sundance and was released over the summer, is based on a series of viral tweets about a stripper who embarks on a wild road trip to Florida.

Film Independent also handed out its annual Robert Altman Award, which is given to a film’s cast, director and casting director, and this year was awarded to “Mass.”

Among some of the other highlights, Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon” picked up three nominations for Best Feature, Director and Screenplay, helping to boost A24 to lead all distributors with 13, followed by Netflix with nine and IFC Films with eight. Another Sundance entry — “Wild Indian” — also landed four nominations, including for its star Michael Greyeyes. And Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter,” also scored four nominations, including for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Feature and Best Supporting Female Jessie Buckley, though not for lead actress Olivia Colman.

Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, announced that this year’s writers and directors nominated for the awards were 44% women and 38% BIPOC, while the overall crop of nominees for 2022 was 46% women and 32% BIPOC. The Indie Spirits are voted on by Film Independent members, a collection of film lovers and professionals, and this year’s nominating committees were 63% women, 5% Non-binary and 56% BIPOC.

Last year’s Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations were led by the abortion drama “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” In 2021, “Nomadland” won four prizes, including for Best Film.

Beanie Feldstein, Naomi Watts and Regina Hall were on hand Tuesday to announce the 37th annual awards nominations. The 2022 ceremony will move from its traditional slot on the afternoon before the Oscars to now take place earlier in awards season on Sunday, March 6 and will air on IFC.

See the full list of nominees below:

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)

A Chiara

Producers: Jonas Carpignano, Paolo Carpignano, Jon Coplon, Ryan Zacarias

C’mon C’mon

Producers: Chelsea Barnard, Andrea Longacre-White, Lila Yacoub 

The Lost Daughter

Producers: Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler

The Novice

Producers: Ryan Hawkins, Kari Hollend, Steven Sims, Zack Zucker

Zola

Producers: Kara Baker, Dave Franco, Elizabeth Haggard, David Hinojosa, Vince Jolivette, Christine Vachon, Gia Walsh

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)

7 Days

Director: Roshan Sethi

Producers: Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn

Holler

Director: Nicole Riegel

Producers: Adam Cobb, Rachel Gould, Katie Mcneill, Jamie Patricof, Christy Spitzer Thornton

Queen of Glory

Director: Nana Mensah

Producers: Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins Hicks, Jamund Washington 

Test Pattern 

Director/Producer: Shatara Michelle Ford

Producers: Pin-Chun Liu, Yu-Hao Su

Wild Indian

Director/Producer: Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr.

Producers: Thomas Mahoney, Eric Tavitian

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD Given to the best feature made for under $500,000 (Award given to the writer, director and producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.)

Cryptozoo

Writer/Director: Dash Shaw

Producers: Tyler Davidson, Kyle Martin, Jane Samborski, Bill Way

Jockey

Writer/Director/Producer: Clint Bentley

Writer/Producer: Greg Kwedar 

Producer: Nancy Schafer 

Shiva Baby

Writer/Director/Producer: Emma Seligman

Producers: Kieran Altmann, Katie Schiller, Lizzie Shapiro

Sweet Thing

Writer/Director: Alexandre Rockwell

Producers: Louis Anania, Haley Anderson, Kenan Baysal

This is Not a War Story

Writer/Director/Producer: Talia Lugacy

Producers: Noah Lang, Julian West

BEST DIRECTOR

Janicza Bravo

Zola 

Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Lost Daughter

Lauren Hadaway

The Novice

Mike Mills

C’mon C’mon

Ninja Thyberg

Pleasure

BEST SCREENPLAY

Nikole Beckwith

Together Together

Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O. Harris

Zola

Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Lost Daughter

Mike Mills

C’mon C’mon

Todd Stephens

Swan Song

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr.

Wild Indian 

Matt Fifer;Story by Sheldon D. Brown

Cicada

Shatara Michelle Ford

Test Pattern 

Fran Kranz

Mass 

Michael Sarnoski;Story by Vanessa Block, Michael Sarnoski

Pig

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Ante Cheng, Matthew Chuang

Blue Bayou 

Lol Crawley

The Humans

Tim Curtin

A Chiara

Edu Grau

Passing

Ari Wegner

Zola

BEST EDITING

Affonso Gonçalves

A Chiara 

Ali Greer

The Nowhere Inn

Lauren Hadaway, Nathan Nugent

The Novice

Joi McMillon

Zola 

Enrico Natale

The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

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 MALE LEAD

Clifton Collins Jr.

Jockey 

Frankie Faison

The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain

Michael Greyeyes

Wild Indian

Udo Kier

Swan Song

Simon Rex

Red Rocket

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Jessie Buckley

The Lost Daughter

Amy Forsyth

The Novice

Ruth Negga

Passing

Revika Reustle

Pleasure

Suzanna Son

Red Rocket

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Colman Domingo

Zola

Meeko Gattuso

Queen of Glory

Troy Kotsur

CODA

Will Patton

Sweet Thing

Chaske Spencer

Wild Indian

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

Mass

Director: Fran Kranz

Casting Directors: Henry Russell Bergstein, Allison Estrin

Ensemble Cast: Kagen Albright, Reed Birney, Michelle N. Carter, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Breeda Wool

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)

Ascension

Director/Producer: Jessica Kingdon

Producers: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell

Flee

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen 

Producers: Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen

In the Same Breath

Director/Producer: Nanfu Wang

Producers: Christopher Clements, Julie Goldman, Carolyn Hepburn, Jialing Zhang

Procession

Director: Robert Greene

Producers: Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, Douglas Tirola 

Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson

Producers: David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, Joseph Patel

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)

Compartment No. 6

Finland/Russia

Director: Juho Kuosmanen

Drive My Car

Japan

Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Parallel Mothers

Spain

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Pebbles

India

Director: P S Vinothraj

Petite Maman

France

Director: Céline Sciamma

Prayers for the Stolen

Mexico

Director: Tatiana Huezo

PRODUCERS AWARD (The Producers Award, now in its 24th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films.)

Brad Becker-Parton 

Pin-Chun Liu

Lizzie Shapiro

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD (The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 27th year,  recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.)

Alex Camilleri

Luzzu

Michael Sarnoski

Pig

Gillian Wallace Horvat

I Blame Society

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD (The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 26th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.)

Angelo Madsen Minax

North By Current

Jessica Beshir

Faya Dayi

Debbie Lum

Try Harder!

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)

Black and Missing

Series By/Executive Producers: Soledad O’Brien, Geeta Gandbhir

Executive Producers: Jo Honig, Patrick Conway, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez

The Choe Show

Creator/Exec Producer: David Choe

Executive Producers: Matt Revelli, Christopher C. Chen, Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson

The Lady and The Dale

Executive Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Allen Bain, Andre Gaines, Nick  Cammilleri, Alana Carithers, Zackary Drucker, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller 

Nuclear Family

Series By: Ry Russo-Young

Executive Producers: Liz Garbus, Julie Gaither, Jon Bardin, Leah Holzer, Peter Saraf, Alex  Turtletaub, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Lauren Haber, Maria Zuckerman, Christine  Connor, Ryan Heller, Barbara Dobkin, Eric Dobkin, Andrea Van Beuren, Joe Landauer

Philly D.A.

Creators: Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, Nicole Salazar 

Executive Producers: Dawn Porter, Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen, Ryan Chanatry, Gena Konstantinakos, Jeff Seelbach, Patty Quillin

Co-Executive Producers: Nion McEvoy, Leslie Berriman

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)

Blindspotting

Creators/Executive Producers: Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs

Executive Producers: Jess Wu Calder, Keith  Calder, Ken Lee, Tim Palen, Emily Gerson Saines, Seith Mann

It’s a Sin

Executive Producers: Russell T Davies, Peter Hoar, Nicola Shindler 

Reservation Dogs

Creators/Executive Producers: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi

Executive Producer: Garrett Basch

The Underground Railroad

Creator/Executive Producer: Barry Jenkins

Executive Producers: Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Colson Whitehead, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt

We Are Lady Parts

Creator: Nida Manzoor 

Executive Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Surian Fletcher-Jones, Mark Freeland

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Thuso Mbedu

The Underground Railroad

Anjana Vasan

We Are Lady Parts

Jana Schmieding

Rutherford Falls

Jasmine Cephus 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 ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Reservation Dogs

Ensemble Cast: Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, FunnyBone

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