‘American Fiction,’ ‘May December’ and ‘Past Lives’ pace 2024 Spirit Awards nominations

‘”American Fiction,” “May December” and “Past Lives” shared the spotlight with five nominations apiece to lead the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards announced Tuesday. The trio all landed bids for Best Feature along with “Passages,” “All of Us Strangers” and “We Grown Now.” “American Fiction” was also cited for its screenplay (Cord Jefferson), for Jeffrey Wright’s lead performance and for Sterling K. Brown’s and Erika Alexander’s supporting work. “May December” also landed bids for Best Director (Todd Haynes) and Best First Screenplay (Sammy Burch) as well as for Natalie Portman’s lead performance and Charles Melton’s support. “Past Lives” was singled out for Celine Song’s screenplay and direction and the lead performances of Greta Lee and Teo Yoo. See the full list of nominees here.

Next with four nominations apiece were “Passages” and the Alexander Payne-directed “The Holdovers.” Besides its Best Feature bid, “Passages” was honored for Best Director (Ira Sachs), Best Lead Performance (Franz Rogowski) and Best Supporting Performance (Ben Whishaw). “Holdovers” was a nominee for Best Screenplay (David Hemingson), Best Cinematography (Eigil Bryid), Best Supporting Performance (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and Best Breakthrough Performance (Dominic Sessa).

Besides Portman, Lee, Rogowski, Yoo and Wright, the Best Lead Performance nominees were Jessica Chastain (“Memory), Trace Lysette (“Monica”), Judy Reyes (“Birth/Rebirth”), Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”) and Teyana Taylor (“A Thousand and One”). In addition to Brown, Alexander, Melton, Randolph and Whishaw, Best Supporting Performance bids went to Noah Galvin (“Theater Camp”), Anne Hathaway and Marin Ireland (both for “Eileen”), Glenn Howerton (“Blackberry”) and Catalina Saavedra (“Rotting in the Sun”).

Only American productions with budgets under $30 million for eligible for consideration in the film races. Too, last year, the Spirits eliminated the four gendered acting awards in both the film and television lineups and replaced them with prizes for lead and supporting performance regardless of gender – accounting for the 10 nominees apiece.

Meanwhile, on the television side, the top nominated shows were HBO’s “The Last of Us” and the Prime Video satire “I’m a Virgo” with four each. “I’m a Virgo” made the list of Best New Scripted Series along with “Beef,” “Dreaming Whilst Black,” “Slip” and the Amazon Freevee reality hoax sitcom “Jury Duty.” “Virgo” was also cited for Best Lead Performance (Jharrel Jerome), Best Supporting Performance (Olivia Washington) and Best Breakthrough Performance (Kara Young). “Last of Us” earned nominations for Bella Ramsay in Lead Performance, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman in Supporting Performance and Keivonn Montreal Woodard in Breakthrough Performance.

Besides Jerome and Ramsay, bids for Best Lead Performance in a Scripted Series for TV went to Emma Corrin (“A Murder at the End of the World”), Dominque Fishback (“Swarm”), Betty Gilpin (“Mrs. Davis”), Zoe Lister-Jones (Slip”), Bel Powley (“A Small Light”), Ramon Rodriguez (“Will Trent”) and Ali Wong and Steven Yeun (“Beef”). In Supporting Performance, aside from Bartlett, Offerman and Washington, the nominees include music superstar Billie Eilish (“Swarm”), Jack Farthing (“Rain Dogs”), Adina Porter (“The Changeling”), Lewis Pullman (“Lessons in Chemistry”), Bennie Safdie (“The Curse”) and Luke Tennie and Jessica Williams (both from “Shrinking”).

New to the television categtories is the Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series. Besides Young and Woodard, they include Clark Backo (“The Changeling”), Aria Mia Loberti (“All the Light We Cannot See”) and Adjani Salmon (“Dreaming Whilst Black”). Also this year, “Jury Duty” is the lone nominee for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.

Film Independent President Josh Welsh said in s a statement, “This year’s group of Spirit Award nominees reflect the undeniable strength and vitality of independent storytelling – this is the beating heart of film culture today.”

The 39th Spirit Awards ceremony will be held February 25, 2024, in a tent on Santa Monica Beach and streamed on the IMDb and Film Independent YouTube Channels, with “SNL” alum Aidy Bryant hosting.

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