Exclusively set aside for films made for under $20 million, the Independent Spirit Awards seeks to award the best of the best of films made on a shoestring budget. Even the original ISA statues themselves were made up of a glass pyramid encasing a shoestring – a paper-thin but elegant metaphor for the process of making independent movies.

This year’s nominees stir some of the strongest Oscar contenders in with a host of new coming talent. Leading the pack, 12 Years a Slave received seven nominations over a number of categories. Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska trailed closely with six nominations for his satirical look at a Midwest father and son on a roadtrip.

While a number of the nominees here will make their way into the Oscar contest come next March, many films with bigger budgets will edge out some of the competition seen here. For instance, 12 Years a Slave will certainly go on to make huge waves in this year’s Oscars whereas it’s closest competitor here, Nebraska, will have trouble getting the same attention.

Nominees are all below with my predicted winner highlighted in red.

Best Feature

12 Years a Slave: Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad
All Is Lost: Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb
Frances Ha: Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Rodrigo Teixeira, Lila Yacoub
Inside Llewyn Davis: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin
Nebraska: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa

Best Director

Shane Carruth “Upstream Color”
J.C. Chandor “All Is Lost”
Steve McQueen “12 Years a Slave”
Jeff Nichols “Mud”
Alexander Payne “Nebraska”

Best Screenplay

Woody Allen “Blue Jasmine”
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater “Before Midnight”
Nicole Holofcener “Enough Said”
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber “The Spectacular Now”
John Ridley “12 Years a Slave”

Best First Feature

Blue Caprice – Alexandre Moors, Kim Jackson, Brian O’Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi
Concussion – Stacie Passon, Rose Troche
Fruitvale Station – Ryan Coogler, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker
Una Noche – Lucy Mulloy, Sandy Pérez Aguila, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago
Wadjda – Haifaa Al Mansour, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

Best First Screenplay

Lake Bell “In A World”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt “Don Jon”
Bob Nelson “Nebraska“
Jill Soloway “Afternoon Delight”
Michael Starrbury “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete“

John Cassavetes Award – (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000.) 

Computer Chess – Andrew Bujalski, Houston King & Alex Lipschultz
Crystal Fairy – Sebastiàn Silva, Juan de Dios Larraín & Pablo Larraín
Museum Hours – Jem Cohen, Paolo Calamita & Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Pit Stop – Yen Tan, David Lowery, Jonathan Duffy, James M. Johnston, Eric Steele, Kelly Williams
This is Martin Bonner – Chad Hartigan, Cherie Saulter

Best Female Lead

Cate Blanchett “Blue Jasmine”
Julie Delpy “Before Midnight”
Gaby Hoffmann “Crystal Fairy”
Brie Larson “Short Term 12”
Shailene Woodley “The Spectacular Now”

Best Male Lead

Bruce Dern “Nebraska“
Chiwetel Ejiofor “12 Years a Slave”
Oscar Isaac “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Michael B. Jordan “Fruitvale Station”
Matthew McConaughey “Dallas Buyers Club”
Robert Redford “All Is Lost”

Best Supporting Actress

Melonie Diaz “Fruitvale Station”
Sally Hawkins “Blue Jasmine”
Lupita Nyong’o “12 Years a Slave”
Yolonda Ross “Go For Sisters”
June Squibb “Nebraska”

Best Supporting Actor

Michael Fassbender “12 Years a Slave”
Will Forte “Nebraska”
James Gandolfini “Enough Said”
Jared Leto “Dallas Buyers Club”
Keith Stanfield “Short Term 12”

Best Cinematography

Sean Bobbitt “12 Years a Slave”
Benoit Debie “Spring Breakers”
Bruno Delbonnel “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Frank G. DeMarco “All Is Lost”
Matthias Grunsky “Computer Chess”

Best Editing

Shane Carruth & David Lowery “Upstream Color”
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives “Museum Hours”
Jennifer Lame “Frances Ha”
Cindy Lee “Una Noche”
Nat Sanders “Short Term 12”

Best Documentary

20 Feet From Stardom – Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers
After Tiller – Martha Shane & Lana Wilson
Gideon’s Army – Dawn Porter, Julie Goldman
The Act of Killing – Joshua Oppenheimer,  Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo
The Square – Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer

Best International Film

A Touch of Sin (China) – Jia Zhang-Ke
Blue is the Warmest Color (France) -Abdellatif Kechiche
Gloria (Chile) – Sebastián Lelio
The Great Beauty (Italy) – Paolo Sorrentino
The Hunt (Denmark) – Thomas Vinterberg

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