THE NOMINATIONS for the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards have been announced, with Irish interests coming from Kerry actor Jessie Buckley and Kildare actor Paul Mescal.
Mescal has been nominated in the Best Lead Performance category for his role in Aftersun.
In the film, he plays one-half of a father-daughter duo on holiday in an all-inclusive resort in Turkey.
Calum, played by Mescal, does his best to give Sophie the perfect holiday but seems to struggle with anxiety and depression – something Sophie only realises while looking back on the holiday as an adult.
His co-star Frankie Corio, who plays Sophie, has also been nominated in the Best Breakthrough Performance category, while the film was been nominated for Best First Feature, Best Cinematography for Gregory Oke, and Best Editing for Blair McClendon.
Jessie Buckley is to be recognised as part of the Robert Altman Award which is given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast.
Buckley has a role in Women Talking, based novel by Miriam Toews. She plays one woman who is part of an isolated Mennonite that must grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith after it is revealed that men from their community drugged and raped the community's women at night for years.
Other nominations for Best Feature include Bones and All, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Tár, Women Talking and Our Father, the Devil.
Everything Everywhere All At Once led all films with eight total nominations, including Best Director for Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, and acting nominations for stars Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu.
Tár received seven nominations including Best Director for Todd Field and acting nominations for Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss.
In addition to the film nominees, Academy Award-winning filmmakers and previous Film Independent Fellows Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals) and Siân Heder (Coda, Tallulah) were announced as the honorary co-chairs of the 38th Spirit Awards.
Both co-chairs were also recognised at the 2021 Spirit Awards, where Chloé Zhao won Best Director, Best Editing and Best Feature for Nomadland, and Siân Heder was nominated for Best New Scripted Series for Little America. Previous honorary chairs include Kristen Stewart, Shaka King and Ava DuVernay.
Celebrating creative independence, diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision, the 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place on Saturday 4 March 2023.
The in-person show, held on the beach in Santa Monica, will be streamed internationally across multiple online and digital platforms.
