Spirit Awards Analysis: Noms Advance Oscar Contenders ‘American Fiction,’ ‘May December,’ ‘Past Lives’

As always, the Film Independent Spirit Award nominations — see the full list here — gave a boost to a handful of potential Oscar contenders. While the Santa Monica beach Spirit Awards show on February 24, 2024 is some months off, nominations leaders “American Fiction” (Amazon/MGM), “May December” (Netflix), and “Past Lives” (A24), with five nominations each including Best Feature, are looking good for Oscar attention.

The Spirit Awards nominating committees are comprised of film professionals from every side of the industry. The winners are voted on by members of Film Independent.

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While Todd Haynes for “May December” and Celine Song for “Past Lives,” who also landed Best Director slots, are long shots for Best Director Oscar nominations, this recognition boosts their chances of a Best Picture or Screenplay nod. It’s all about creating must-sees for Oscar voters.

Gender-neutral acting nods went to lead performance contenders Natalie Portman for “May December,” Greta Lee for “Past Lives,” and Jeffrey Wright for “American Fiction,” joined on the supporting side by Erika Alexander and Sterling K. Brown (both for “American Fiction”). The film has been building steam ever since winning the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is predictive of a Best Picture nomination. Following up on his Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle Awards Supporting Actor wins is breakout Charles Melton for “May December.”

Also building on NYFCC momentum are Ira Sachs’ “Passages”(Mubi) and “The Holdovers” (Focus) with four nominations each including New York winners Franz Rogowski for Best Lead Performance for “Passages” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Performance for “The Holdovers.” At the Spirits, that film also landed Best Screenplay for David Hemingson and Breakthrough Performer Dominic Sessa. The latter Christmas comedy, which is playing well at the box office and building upbeat word of mouth, is more likely to register with a wide swath of Oscar voters.

Also coming along, with support from the UK (and the big winner at the British Independent Film Awards) is Best Feature nominee “All of Us Strangers” (Searchlight) from Best Director nominee Andrew Haigh, which could yield a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Spirit nominee Andrew Scott.

Among the Spirit documentaries, Gotham winner “Four Daughters” popped up again, along with the other documentary sharing the Cannes documentary prize, “The Mother of All Lies,” which recently won the top prize at the Marrakech Film Festival and shockingly is still without distribution. Both are dark horses in the race for the Oscar shortlist, along with black-and-white stunner “Kokomo City.”

Among the international film nominees, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon) continues to build support, along with Jonathan Glazer’s German-language UK Oscar entry “The Zone of Interest” (A24).

With a budget cap of $30 million, several likely Oscar contenders were not in the mix, including Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer ” (Universal), Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” (Warner Bros.), Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” (Searchlight), “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros.), “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Originals and Paramount) and Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” one of several Netflix entries to exceed the cap, including “Rustin,” starring Colman Domingo as Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin, and “Nyad,” starring Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad.

Not to worry; we will hear plenty from these movies when the Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominations come around on December 11, 2023 and January 10, 2024, respectively.

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