Birdman, Boyhood share top honors at 2015 Spirit Awards

In a couple of hours the 30th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will commence. Sasha will be there live-tweeting the festivities. Now’s a good time to take another look at the Spirit Award nominees, after the cut, and think about how much better they feel than the Oscar nominees?

BEST FEATURE
“Birdman”

DIRECTOR
“Boyhood”, Richard Linklater

FEMALE LEAD
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

MALE LEAD
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”

SUPPORTING FEMALE
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”

SUPPORTING MALE
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

SCREENPLAY
Dan Gilroy, “Nightcrawler”

FIRST SCREENPLAY
Justin Simien, “Dear White People”

DOCUMENTARY
“CitizenFour”, Director-producer: Laura Poitras

INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
“Ida” (Poland) Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)
“Nightcrawler”, Director: Dan Gilroy

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
“Land Ho!” Writers-directors: Aaron Katz & Martha Stephens