Last year, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Tár, and Women Talking dominated the indie-centric awards circuit all season long—a trend best snapshotted when all three were nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for best feature before going on to equivalent best-picture nominations at the Oscars. This year, a similar grouping is starting to take shape, with the Spirit Awards announcing their 2023 nominees on Tuesday.
Following their strong showings at the Gotham Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, May December and Past Lives dominated once again, the only titles to receive multiple acting nominations while also competing in best picture, director, and screenplay—major shows of support in a year with several major bigger-budget contenders.
The best-feature category included other Oscar hopefuls as well, including Amazon MGM’s American Fiction and Searchlight’s All of Us Strangers, both of which earned rave reviews out of the fall festivals. (Both films’ lead actors, Jeffrey Wright and Andrew Scott, were recognized in lead performance; Fiction’s screenplay and two of its supporting cast members were also nominated, as was Strangers’ Andrew Haigh for best director.) The category was rounded out by an indie awards darling in Passages (coming off Franz Rogowski’s upset NYFCC win for best actor) and a left field choice—as this group blessedly tends to include—in We Grown Now, which Sony Pictures Classics has yet to release in theaters.
In terms of other eligible high-profile titles, Focus’s The Holdovers missed out on the top category—perhaps it hewed a bit conventional for the group’s tastes; the awards snubbed eventual Oscar champ CODA in best feature a few years back—but popped up in key races including screenplay (David Hemingson) and supporting performance (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). (Focus’s other big player, A Thousand and One, scored a lead-performance nom for Teyana Taylor.) But with a good chunk of the awards-season players out of the way here—from Neon’s Origin and Ferrari to A24’s The Iron Claw to Searchlight’s Poor Things to blockbuster fare from Warner Bros. (Barbie, The Color Purple), Universal (Oppenheimer), and the streamers (Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Napoleon), none of which could compete—underdogs got a chance to shine. Room was made for the tender family drama Monica and its breakout lead, Trace Lysette; the likes of BlackBerry’s Glenn Howerton and Eileen’s Anne Hathaway found love in the supporting field as they jockey for space in competitive Oscar categories.
And the Spirits are often where surprise Oscar nominees first pop up. Think Jessie Buckley for The Lost Daughter two years ago, or Brian Tyree Henry for Causeway just last year. It’s as crowded as it gets this season, so every boost helps. The casts and crews behind May December and Past Lives have perhaps the most to celebrate right now, but for many studios, there are glimmers of hope and pleasant signs of support in these nominations.
Check out the full list below.
BEST FEATURE
All of Us Strangers
American Fiction
May December
Passages
Past Lives
We Grown Now
BEST FIRST FEATURE
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Earth Mama
A Thousand and One
Upon Entry
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
The Artifice Girl
Cadejo Blanco
Fremont
Rotting in the Sun
The Unknown Country
BEST DIRECTOR
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
Todd Haynes, May December
William Oldroyd, Eileen
Celine Song, Past Lives
Ira Sachs, Passages
BEST SCREENPLAY
American Fiction
Birth/Rebirth
Bottoms
Past Lives
The Holdovers
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
May December
The Starling Girl
Theater Camp
Upon Entry
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
The Holdovers
Monica
We Grown Now
BEST EDITING
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Rotting in the Sun
Theater Camp
Upon Entry
We Grown Now
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Jessica Chastain, Memory
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Trace Lysette, Monica
Natalie Portman, May December
Judy Reyes, Birth/Rebirth
Franz Rogowski, Passages
Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Teo Yoo, Past Lives
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Erika Alexander, American Fiction
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Noah Galvin, Theater Camp
Anne Hathaway, Eileen
Glenn Howerton, BlackBerry
Marin Ireland, Eileen
Charles Melton, May December
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Catalina Saavedra, Rotting in the Sun
Ben Whishaw, Passages
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Marshawn Lynch, Bottoms
Atibon Nazaire, Mountains
Tia Nomore, Earth Mama
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Anaita Wali Zada, Fremont
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Showing Up
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Bye Bye Tiberias
Four Daughters
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Kokomo City
The Mother of All Lies
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Anatomy of a Fall
Godland
Mami Wata
Tótem
The Zone of Interest
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court
Dear Mama
Murder in Big Horn
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
Wrestlers
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Beef
Dreaming Whilst Black
I’m a Virgo
Jury Duty
Slip
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Emma Corrin, A Murder at the End of the World
Dominique Fishback, Swarm
Betty Gilpin, Mrs. Davis
Jharrel Jerome, I’m a Virgo
Zoe Lister-Jones, Slip
Bel Powley, A Small Light
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Ramón Rodriguez, Will Trent
Ali Wong, Beef
Steven Yeun, Beef
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Murray Bartlett, The Last of Us
Billie Eilish, Swarm
Jack Farthing, Rain Dogs
Nick Offerman, The Last of Us
Adina Porter, The Changeling
Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry
Benny Safdie, The Curse
Luke Tennie, Shrinking
Olivia Washington, I’m a Virgo
Jessica Williams, Shrinking
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Jury Duty
Vanity Fair’s Most Read Stories of 2023
The Real Housewives Reckoning Rocking Bravo
The Untold Story of Lost’s Poisonous Culture
Kyle Deschanel, the Rothschild Who Wasn’t
The JFK Assassination Revelation That Could Upend the “Lone Gunman” Theory
Gisele Bündchen Talks About It All
The Serial Killer and the Texas Mom Who Stopped Him
Plus: Fill Out Your 2023 Emmys Ballot