AMERICAN HONEY AND MOONLIGHT LEAD 2016 SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS

Earlier today, I wrote up a roster of predicted nominees for our Spirit Award nominations, now announced by Film Independent. And indeed, it was Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight, as I had predicted, that threw down the gauntlet for their fellow nominated titles, with 5 and 6 mentions apiece, though Andrea Arnold's American Honey was a hit with voters too, also claiming 6. As per, there were surprises aplenty, particularly in tech categories - they help to enliven an otherwise fairly safe slate for Film Independent. On the 25th of February, as ever on the eve of the Academy Awards, winners will be announced live on U.S. TV.

Best Feature

American Honey (Thomas Benski, Lars Knudsen, Lucas Ochoa, Pouya Shahbazian, Jay van Hoy and Alice Weinberg)

Chronic (Michel Franco, Gina Kwon, Gabriel Ripstein, Moises Zonana)

Jackie (Darren Aronofsky, Juan de Dios Larrain, Scott Franklin, Ari Handel and Mickey Liddell)

Manchester by the Sea (Lauren Beck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Kimberly Steward and Kevin J. Walsh)

Moonlight (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Adele Romanski)

Best Director
Andrea Arnold (American Honey)
Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
Pablo Larrain (Jackie)
Jeff Nichols (Loving)
Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women)

Best Female Lead
Annette Bening (20th Century Women)
Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
Sasha Lane (American Honey)
Ruth Negga (Loving)
Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Best Male Lead
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
David Harewood (Free in Deed)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
Jesse Plemons (Other People)
Tim Roth (Chronic)

Best Supporting Female
Edwina Findley (Free in Deed)
Paulina Garcia (Little Men)
Lily Gladstone (Certain Women)
Riley Keough (American Honey)
Molly Shannon (Other People)

Best Supporting Male
Ralph Fiennes (A Bigger Splash)
Ben Foster (Hell or High Water)
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
Shia LaBeouf (American Honey)
Craig Robinson (Morris from America)

Best Screenplay
Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
Mike Mills (20th Century Women)
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias (Little Men)
Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water)

Best Cinematography
Ava Berkovsky (Free in Deed)
Lol Crawley (Hell or High Water)
Zach Kuperstein (The Eyes of My Mother)
James Laxton (Moonlight)
Robbie Ryan (American Honey)

Best Editing
Matthew Hannam (Swiss Army Man)
Jennifer Lame (Manchester by the Sea)
Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders (Moonlight)
Jake Roberts (Hell or High Water)
Sebastian Sepulveda (Jackie)

Best Documentary
13th (Spencer Averick, Howard Barish and Ava DuVernay)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson and Marilyn Ness)
I Am Not Your Negro (Remi Grellety, Hebert Peck and Raoul Peck)
O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, Nina Krstic, Tamara Rosenberg and Caroline Waterlow)
Sonita (Rokhsareh Ghaem-Maghami and Gerd Haag)
Under the Sun (Natalya Manskaya and Vitaly Mansky)

Best International Film
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonca Filho)
Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
My Golden Days (Arnaud Desplechin)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari)

Best First Feature

The Childhood of a Leader (Chris Coen, Brady Corbet, Ron Curtis, Helena Danielsson, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mona Fastvold and Major Istvan)

The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer and Lisa Kjerulff)

Other People (Sam Bisby, Chris Kelly, Adam Scott and Naomi Scott)

Swiss Army Man (Miranda Bailey, Lawrence Inglee, Dan Kwan, Lauren Mann, Amanda Marshall, Eyal Rimmon, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang)

The Witch (Daniel Bekerman, Robert Eggers, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, Rodrigo Teixeira and Jay van Hoy)

Best First Screenplay
Robert Eggers (The Witch)
Chris Kelly (Other People)
Adam Mansbach (Barry)
Stella Meghie (Jean of the Joneses)
Craig Shilowich (Christine)

John Cassavetes Award
Free in Deed (Mike Bowes, Jake Mahaffy, Mike S. Ryan and Brent Stiefel)
Hunter Gatherer (Michael Covino, April Lamb, Josh Locy, Sara Murphy and Isaiah Smallman)
Lovesong (David Hansen, So Yong Kim, Alex Lipschultz, Johnny Mac and Bradley Rust Gray)
Nakom (Isaac Adakudugu, Kelly Daniela Norris, T. W. Pittman and Giovanni Ximenez)
Spa Night (Andrew Ahn, David Ariniello, Giulia Caruso, Kim Ki Jin and Kelly Thomas)

Robert Altman Award
Moonlight (Mahershala Ali, Patrick Decile, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, Andre Holland, Barry Jenkins, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monae, Jaden Piner, Yesi Ramirez, Trevante Rhodes and Ashton Sanders)

Kiehl's Someone to Watch Award
Andrew Ahn (Spa Night)
Claire Carre (Embers)
Anna Rose Holmer (The Fits)
Ingrid Jungermann (Women Who Kill)

Piaget Producers Award
Lisa Kjerulff
Jordana Mollick
Melody C. Roscher and Craig Shilowich

Truer Than Fiction Award
Kristi Jacobson (Solitary)
Sara Jordeno (Kiki)
Wang Nan Fu (Hooligan Sparrow)