“Call Me By Your Name” vs “Get Out” vs “Lady Bird”: Final Independent Spirit Award predictions

On Saturday, the final show before the Oscars will go down, which of course will be the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Long the hipper compliment to the Academy Awards, this is the last stop before the season officially ends on Sunday night. Despite the presence of many Oscar nominees in the lineup, this can have no impact on the race, obviously. Voting wrapped up yesterday, so ballots are in. The Spirit Awards simply represent a fun way to wind down the season. They’re often my favorite non Academy event of each year, so they’re well worth keeping an eye on just on their own merit.

Of course, below you will see what I think the Spirit Awards will look like this weekend, but first a bit of commentary. Again, by and large it looks like a major competition between Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, Get Out, and Lady Bird. One thing we might see here, as opposed to with Oscar, is that voters might spread the love. The films, along with I, Tonya and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri have a chance to all take home prizes. Factor in how this could be a last moment in the sun for The Big Sick, as well as first and last ones for the likes of Columbus, A Ghost Story, and Good Time, and you have a potential hodgepodge of winners. Initially, I had Call Me By Your Name doing the best of the bunch, but that was just a hunch, one that I’ve moved in the direction of Get Out instead. This is notoriously a hard awards group to predict, especially when more than one contender also has Academy Award love attached to it. Simply put, this could go almost any way…

Here now are my final predictions for the Independent Spirit Awards:

Best Feature

1. Get Out
2. Call Me By Your Name
3. Lady Bird
4. The Florida Project
5. The Rider

Best Director

1. Jordan Peele – Get Out
2. Luca Guadagnino – Call Me By Your Name
3. Sean Baker – The Florida Project
4. Chloé Zhao – The Rider
5. Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie – Good Time
6. Jonas Carpignano – A Ciambra

Best First Feature

1. Columbus
2. Patti Cake$
3. Ingrid Goes West
4. Menashe
5. Oh Lucy!

Best Male Lead

1. Timothée Chalamet – Call Me By Your Name
2. Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out
3. Robert Pattinson – Good Time
4. James Franco – The Disaster Artist
5. Harris Dickinson – Beach Rats

Best Female Lead

1. Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird
3. Margot Robbie – I, Tonya
4. Salma Hayek – Beatriz at Dinner
5. Regina Williams – Life and Nothing More
6. Shinobu Terajima – Oh Lucy!

Best Supporting Male

1. Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2. Armie Hammer – Call Me By Your Name
3. Benny Safdie – Good Time
4. Barry Keoghan – The Killing of a Sacred Deer
5. Nnamdi Asomugha – Crown Heights

Best Supporting Female

1. Allison Janney – I, Tonya
2. Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
3. Holly Hunter – The Big Sick
4. Taliah Lennice Webster – Good Time
5. Lois Smith – Marjorie Prime

Best Screenplay

1. Lady Bird
2. Get Out
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. The Lovers
5. Beatriz at Dinner

Best First Screenplay

1. The Big Sick
2. Columbus
3. Ingrid Goes West
4. Women Who Kill
5. Donald Cried

Best International Film

1. BPM (Beats Per Minute)
2. A Fantastic Woman
3. Lady Macbeth
4. Loveless
5. I Am Not a Witch

Best Documentary Feature

1. Faces Places
2. Last Men in Aleppo
3. Quest
4. The Departure
5. Motherland

Best Cinematography

1. Call Me By Your Name
2. Columbus
3. The Rider
4. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
5. Beach Rats

Best Editing

1. I, Tonya
2. Get Out
3. Call Me By Your Name
4. Good Time
5. The Rider

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

1. A Ghost Story
2. The Transfiguration
3. Dayveon
4. Life and Nothing More
5. Most Beautiful Island

Bonnie Award (Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo joined American Airlines in 1973 at age 24, becoming the first female pilot to fly for a major U.S. airline. In her honor, the inaugural Bonnie Award will recognize a mid-career female director with a $50,000 unrestricted grant, sponsored by American Airlines)

1. Chloé Zhao
2. Lynn Shelton
3. So Yong Kim

Jeep Truer Than Fiction Award (The 23rd annual Truer Than Fiction Award, funded by the Jeep brand, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by the Jeep brand)

1. Jonathan Olshefski (Director of Quest)
2. Jeff Unay (Director of The Cage Fighter)
3. Shevaun Mizrahi (Director of Distant Constellation)

Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award (The 24th annual Someone to Watch Award, funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851)

1. Justin Chon (Director of Gook)
2. Amman Abbasi (Director of Dayveon)
3. Kevin Phillips (Director of Super Dark Times)

Piaget Producers Award (The 21st annual Producers Award, funded by Piaget, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget)

1. Summer Shelton
2. Giulia Caruso & Ki Jin Kim
3. Ben LeClair

Robert Altman Award (Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)

Mudbound
Director: Dee Rees
Casting Directors: Billy Hopkins, Ashley Ingram
Ensemble Cast: Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan

Stay tuned to see who and what take home prizes on Saturday!