Uncut Gems, The Lighthouse top Spirit Awards nominations

The Safdie brothers' crime film Uncut Gems and Robert Eggers' fever-dream period tale The Lighthouse lead the 35th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards with five nominations each.

The Spirit Awards honour films with budgets below $22.5 million US and are the premier ceremony for indie film. The ceremony is held annually in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., on the day before the Oscars.

With some of this year's top Academy Awards nominees expected to include bigger budgeted films like The Irishman and Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, that left room for movies like Lulu Wang's family drama The Farewell, Joe Talbot's anguished gentrification tale The Last Black Man in San Francisco and the Shia LaBeouf memory piece Honey Boy to rack up multiple nominations.

The nominees for best feature are:

• Noah Baumbach's divorce drama Marriage Story. 
• Terrence Malick's Second World War epic A Hidden Life.
• Chinonye Chukwu's prison drama Clemency.
• Wang's family drama-comedy The Farewell.
• the Safdie brothers' Diamond District thriller Uncut Gems.

Marriage Story didn't earn individual nominations for its acclaimed leads, but it will be given the Spirits' ensemble award, dubbed the Robert Altman Award. Baumbach's screenplay was also nominated.

Independent distributor A24 dominated with 18 nominations, including those for Uncut Gems, The Lighthouse, The Farewell and The Last Black Man in San Francisco. 

Acting nominees include Renée Zellweger, Jennifer Lopez, Hong Chau, Adam Sandler and Robert Pattinson.

Vancouver's Taylor Russell is among the nominees, garnering a supporting actress nod for her role in the family drama Waves.

The Spirits' Bonnie Award, a $50,000 grant given to a mid-career female director will go to one of three finalists: Wang, Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) and Kelly Reichardt, whose latest film is First Cow.

The John Cassavetes Award, given to the best feature made for under $500,000, will go to Kirill Mikhanovsky's Give Me Liberty.

The nominees were announced in a press conference by actresses Zazie Beetz and Natasha Lyonne, and chosen by a committee of about 50. Winners will be decided by the 6,000-plus members of Film Independent. Last year, Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk won best feature.

The Spirit Awards will be held Feb. 8 and broadcast on IFC.

Selected nominees for the 2020 Spirit Awards

Best first feature:

• Booksmart.
• The Climb.
• Diane.
• The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
• The Mustang.
• See You Yesterday.

Best director: 

• Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse.
• Alma Har'el, Honey Boy. 
• Julius Onah, Luce.
• Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems. 
• Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems. 
• Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers.

Best screenplay:

• Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story.
• Jason Begue, Shawn Snyder, To Dust. 
• Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems. 
• Chinonye Chukwu, Clemency. 
• Tarell Alvin McCraney, High Flying Bird.

Best first screenplay:

• Fredrica Bailey, Stefon Bristol, See You Yesterday. 
• Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, Driveways. 
• Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy, Blow the Man Down.
• Jocelyn Deboer, Dawn Luebbe, Greener Grass.
• James Montague, Craig W. Sanger, The Vast of Night.

Best male lead: 

• Chris Galust, Give Me Liberty. 
• Kelvin Harrison Jr., Luce. 
• Robert Pattinson, The Lighthouse. 
• Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems. 
• Matthias Schoenaerts, The Mustang.

Best female lead:

• Karen Allen, Colewell. 
• Hong Chau, Driveways. 
• Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell. 
• Mary Kay Place, Diane.
• Alfre Woodard, Clemency.
• Renée Zellweger, Judy.

Best supporting male: 

• Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse. 
• Noah Jupe, Honey Boy. 
• Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy. 
• Jonathan Majors, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
• Wendell Pierce, Burning Cane.

Best supporting female:

• Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers.
• Taylor Russell, Waves.
• Zhao Shuzhen, The Farewell.
• Lauren "Lolo" Spencer, Give Me Liberty.
• Octavia Spencer, Luce.

Best international film:

• Invisible Life (Brazil).
• Les Misérables (France).
• Parasite (South Korea).
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France).
• Retablo (Peru).
• The Souvenir (United Kingdom).

Best documentary:

• American Factory.
• Apollo 11.
• For Sama.
• Honeyland.
• Island of the Hungry Ghosts.