2017 Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 'Moonlight' And 'American Honey' Lead The Pack

We're heading into the heart of awards season, and first out of the gate with accolades to go around is Film Independent with the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards nominations, honoring achievements in the world of indie cinema. This year the nominations seem to be spread out quite a bit, though there were a couple clear leaders in the number of nominations.

Both Moonlight from Barry Jenkins and American Honey from Andrea Arnold came away with six nominations each, including Best Feature and Best Director. Other nominees spread across various categories include the Sundance sensation Manchester by the Sea, the first lady biopic Jackie, the comedic drama Other People, the quirky farting corpse comedy Swiss Army Man, and plenty of other movies that you simply must seek out.

Get the full list of 2017 Independent Spirit Award nominations after the jump.

Coming in behind Moonlight and American Honey is Manchester by the Sea with a total of five nominations, followed by Jackie with four nominations. After that we have Chronic with two nominations, and the rest of the nods are spread out across different titles.

There were some disappointments though as films like Paterson, Weiner, Everybody Wants Some and My Name Is Doris were snubbed completely, while performances from Jeff Bridges and Michelle Williams for Hell or High Water and Manchester by the Sea (respectively) went ignored as well. But even so, this is a great line-up of indie movies. Here's the full list of nominations:

BEST FEATURE

Moonlight

Jackie

Manchester by the Sea

American Honey

Chronic

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 LEADCasey 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 FIRST FEATURE

Swiss Army Man

The Childhood of a Leader

The Fits

Other People

The Witch

BEST SCREENPLAY

Barry Jenkins – Moonlight

Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea

Mike Mills – 20th Century Women

Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharias – Little Men

Taylor Sheridan – Hell or High Water

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Robert Eggers – The Witch

Chris Kelly – Other People

Adam Mansbach – Barry

Stella Meghie – Jean of the Joneses

Craig Shilowich – Christine

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Ava Berkofsky – Free In Deed

Lol Crawley – The Childhood of a Leader

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 & Nat Sanders – Moonlight

Jake Roberts – Hell or High Water

Sebastián Sepúlveda – Jackie

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The 13th

Cameraperson

I Am Not Your Negro

O.J.: Made in America

Sonita

Under the Sun

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Aquarius (Brazil)

Chevalier (Greece)

My Golden Days (France)

Toni Erdmann (Germany and Romania)

Under the Shadow (Iran and U.K.)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Best Ensemble)

Moonlight

JOHN CASSAVETTES AWARD (Best Feature Made For Under $5,000)

Free In Deed

Hunter Gatherer

Lovesong

Nakom

Spa Night

KIEHL'S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARDAndrew Ahn – Spa Night

Claire Carré – Embers

Anna Rose Holmer – The Fits

Ingrid Jungermann – Women Who Kill