Precursor: 36th Spirit Award Nominations (2020)

The first caveat of Spirit Award Nominations is that the nominations aren’t picked by the organization on the whole, but by a committee. Thus there are often strange inclusions/omissions offered up every year. For instance, Ma Rainey’s in Best Feature and Promising Young Woman in director. This in spite of Carey Mulligan and the film she’s in showing up in multiple places. The other major caveat is that the exclusion of the men from One Night in Miami doesn’t indicate they didn’t like the film (other failures of nomination do), it just means that the ensemble award they were granted means they are, individually, ineligible for the acting awards. It’s a rather terrible choice on the Spirit Awards’ part, but it’s been their issue for years now.

Nominations Tallies

(7) Never Rarely Sometimes Always
(6) Minari
(5) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Nomadland
(4) Miss Juneteenth
(3) The Assistant, First Cow, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal

The Nominations

Best Feature

First Cow
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Minari
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Nomadland

Best First Feature

The Forty-Year-Old Version
I Carry You With Me
Miss Juneteenth
Nine Days
Sound of Metal

John Cassavetes Award

The Killing of Two Lovers
La Leyenda Negra
Lingua Franca
Residue
Saint Frances

Best Director

Lee Isaac Chung – Minari
Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman
Eliza Hittman – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Kelly Reichardt – First Cow
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland

Best Female Lead

Nicole Beharie – Miss Juneteenth
Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Julia Garner – The Assistant
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

Best Male Lead

Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Adarsh Gourav – The White Tiger
Rob Morgan – Bull
Steven Yeun – Minari

Best Supporting Female

Alexis Chikaeze – Miss Juneteenth
Yeri Han – Minari
Valerie Mahaffey – French Exit
Talia Ryder – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Youn Yuh-jung – Minari

Best Supporting Male

Colman Domingo – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Orion Lee – First Cow
Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
Glynn Turman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Benedict Wong – Nine Days