Best Feature
BIRDMAN
Producers: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole

BOYHOOD
Producers: Richard Linklater, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss, Cathleen Sutherland

LOVE IS STRANGE
Producers: Lucas Joaquin, Lars Knudsen, Ira Sachs, Jayne Baron Sherman, Jay Van Hoy

SELMA
Producers: Christian Colson, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Oprah Winfrey

WHIPLASH
Producers: Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook, David Lancaster, Michael Litvak

Best Director
Damian Chazelle, WHIPLASH
Ava DuVernay, SELMA
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, BIRDMAN
Richard Linklater, BOYHOOD
David Zellner, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

Best Male Lead
André Benjamin, JIMI: ALL IS BY MY SIDE
Jake Gyllenhaal, NIGHTCRAWLER
Michael Keaton, BIRDMAN
John Lithgow, LOVE IS STRANGE
David Oyelowo, SELMA

Best Female Lead
Marion Cotillard, THE IMMIGRANT
Rinko Kikuchi, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER
Julianne Moore, STILL ALICE
Jenny Slate, OBVIOUS CHILD
Tilda Swinton, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

Best Supporting Male
Riz Ahmed, NIGHTCRAWLER
Ethan Hawke, BOYHOOD
Alfred Molina, LOVE IS STRANGE
Edward Norton, BIRDMAN
J.K. Simmons, WHIPLASH

Best Supporting Female
Patricia Arquette, BOYHOOD
Jessica Chastain, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR
Carmen Ejogo, SELMA
Andrea Suarez Paz, STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS
Emma Stone, BIRDMAN

Best Screenplay
Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, BIG EYES
J.C. Chandor, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR
Dan Gilroy, NIGHTCRAWLER
Jim Jarmusch, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharis, LOVE IS STRANGE

Best First Feature
A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Producers: Justin Begnaud, Sina Sayyah

DEAR WHITE PEOPLE
Director/Producer: Justin Simien
Producers: Effie T. Brown, Ann Le, Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Lena Waithe

NIGHTCRAWLER
Director: Dan Gilroy
Producers: Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak

OBVIOUS CHILD
Director: Gillian Robespierre
Producer: Elisabeth Holm

SHE'S LOST CONTROL
Director/Producer: Anja Marquardt
Producers: Mollye Asher, Kiara C. Jones

Best First Screenplay
Desiree Akhaven, APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR
Sara Colangelo, LITTLE ACCIDENTS
Justin Lader, THE ONE I LOVE
Anja Maruardt, SHE'S LOST CONTROL
Justin Simien, DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

John Cassavetes Award
BLUE RUIN
Writer/Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Producers: Richard Peete, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani

IT FELT LIKE LOVE
Writer/Director/Producer: Eliza Hittman
Producers: Shrihari Sathe, Laura Wagner

LAND HO!
Writers/Directors: Aaron Katz & Martha Stephens
Producers: Christina Jennings, Mynette Louie, Sara Murphy

MAN FROM RENO
Writer/Director: Dave Boyle
Writers: Joel Clark, Michael Lerman
Producer: Ko Mori

TEST
Writer/Director/Producer: Chris Mason Johnson
Producer: Chris Martin

Best Cinematography
Darius Khondji, THE IMMIGRANT
Emmanuel Lubezki, BIRDMAN
Sean Porter, IT FELT LIKE LOVE
Lyle Vincent, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
Bradford Young, SELMA

Best Editing
Sandra Adair, BOYHOOD
Tom Cross, WHIPLASH
John Gilroy, NIGHTCRAWLER
Ron Patane, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR
Adam Wingard, THE GUEST

Best Documentary
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH
Directors: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Producers: Dan Bowen, James Wilson

CITIZENFOUR
Director/Producer: Laura Poitras
Producers: Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky

THE SALT OF THE EARTH
Directors: Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders
Producer: David Rosier

STRAY DOG
Director: Debra Granik
Producer: Anne Rosellini

VIRUNGA
Director/Producer: Orlando von Einsiedel
Producer: Joanna Natasegara

Best International Film
FORCE MAJEURE
(Sweden)
Director: Ruben Östlund

IDA
(Poland)
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

LEVIATHAN
(Russia)
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

MOMMY
(Canada)
Director: Xavier Dolan

NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY
(Philippines)
Director: Lav Diaz

UNDER THE SKIN
(United Kingdom)
Director: Jonathan Glazer

Robert Altman Award
INHERENT VICE
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Casting Director: Cassandra Kulukundis
Ensemble Cast: Josh Brolin, Martin Donovan, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom, Joaquin Phoenix, Eric Roberts, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short Serena Scott Thomas, Benicio Del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Michael Kenneth Williams, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon

Special Distinction Award
FOXCATCHER
Director/Producer: Bennett Miller
Producers: Anthony Bregman, Megan Ellison, Jon Kilik
Writers: E. Max Frye, Dan Futterman
Actors: Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/birdm ... 201364588/

Jenny Slate!!!

Strong slate of contenders with Birdman/Boyhood/Selma/Whiplash.

A total bummer to see The Skeleton Twins snubbed in every category. Still my favorite movie of the year so far. Hader and Wiig knocked it out of the park.

It is cool to see The Guest score an editing nomination though. Didn't really expect it to get anything as it's not really the kind of movie that gets recognized.


Maybe Whiplash will get a Picture nomination at the Oscars.

Interesting note: all 4 winners of the acting categories that won here last year won the Oscars.

Could repeat if the frontrunners for wins are Moore, Keaton, Arquette and Simmons.

Perhaps a bit deflating compared to individual recognition, but I am glad for Foxcatcher and its special, production-honoring prize.

These are solid overall. The Spirit Awards have edged closer and closer to Oscar-predicting status in recent years, but I am still glad they exist as a forum where a performance such as Jenny Slate's in Obvious Child can be recognized.

I think Foxcatcher was not eligible for the other categories. Same goes for Inherent Vice.

No screenplay nom for Boyhood. Right decision, IMO, most of it felt improvised anyway.

Here is the Boyhood screenplay, for those interested: http://images.amcnetworks.com/ifcfilmsa ... -FINAL.pdf

Umm, in fact I just noticed that four of the BP nominees here didn't get Screenplay nods and not a single film got noms for Picture, Director and Screenplay. That is weird. I mean Big Eyes' screenplay nom itself is very weird.

^Yeah, that's crazy. I would imagine if they loved Birdman so much, they would at least nominate the screenplay. And the same goes for the rest of the Best Picture nominees.

Also, Mike Leigh uses improvisation a lot in his screenplays, and he's been nominated for Best Original Screenplay five times at the Oscars. Whether or not Linklater took a similar approach to Boyhood's screenplay, I don't know. But it shouldn't matter. It's just a different approach to writing a screenplay; working with the actors from a basic premise to develop a more naturalistic and organic style. That's just my opinion.