Best Actor nominee Andre Benjamin as Jimi Hendrix in All Is by My Side
  • Best Actor nominee Andre Benjamin as Jimi Hendrix in All Is by My Side

These were announced yesterday, when America was busy with other stuff, so allow me to direct you today to the full list of nominees for the 30th Independent Spirit Awards, honoring achievement in independent film (specifically, those independent films with budgets under $20 million). A sampling:

BEST FEATURE
Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
Love Is Strange
Selma
Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Ava DuVernay, Selma
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
David Zellner, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

FEMALE LEAD
Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant
Rinko Kikuchi, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Jenny Slate, Obvious Child
Tilda Swinton, Only Lovers Left Alive

MALE LEAD
André Benjamin, All Is by My Side
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
John Lithgow, Love Is Strange
David Oyelowo, Selma

SUPPORTING FEMALE
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Carmen Ejogo, Selma
Andrea Suarez Paz, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Emma Stone, Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

SUPPORTING MALE
Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Alfred Molina, Love Is Strange
Edward Norton, Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Points of personal excitement and interest: Boyhood's Patricia Arquette as best supporting, not lead (all but guaranteeing her a win here and, hopefully, at the Oscars); Jenny Slate up for best actress for Obvious Child (comedy rarely gets attention during awards season); Seattle-affiliated Sean Porter up for best cinematography for It Felt Like Love; and that perfectly respectable-and-then-some group of films nominated for best picture (saw Love Is Strange and Boyhood and liked them both very much, seeing Birdman and Whiplash tomorrow and will report back, and I'm anxiously awaiting the release of Ava DuVernay's Selma).

Pertinent fact on the Independent Spirit Awards' status as Oscar predictor, from Variety:

“12 Years a Slave” won the Best Feature award this year, a day before it won the Best Picture Oscar. All four Spirit acting winners also won Oscars: Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”) and Lupita Nyongo (“12 Years a Slave”).

Commence your end-of-year movie-watching now.