‘Baby Reindeer’, ‘English Teacher’, ‘I Saw The TV Glow’, ‘In The Summers’ Among LGBTQ Spirit Award Nominations

Film Independent announced the nominations for the 40th annual edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards on December 4 and there was a heavy inclusion of LGBTQ titles and performers in the film and TV categories. The award ceremony is set to take place on February 22nd at Santa Monica Beach in Southern California.

Jane Schoenbrun‘s feature I Saw the TV Glow, alongside Sean Baker’s drama Anora, led the film nominations with six each. I Saw the TV Glow was nominated for Best Feature and Best Director and Screenplay while Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine were nominated for their performances in the Lead and Supporting acting categories, respectively. (Spirit Awards acting categories for film and TV are non-gendered and include 10 nominees each in the supporting and lead categories.)

Colman Domingo is also nominated for Best Lead Performance for his role in Sing Sing and Hunter Schafer also earned a nom for her role in the thriller Cuckoo. In the Best Supporting Performance category, Kani Kusruti was recognized for her work in Shuchi Talati‘s Girls Will Be Girls.

Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio‘s Sundance-winning drama In The Summers starring Lio Mehiel and Sashe Calle received a nom for Best First Feature. Julio Torres‘s Problemista was also nominated in the category and earned a nod for Best First Screenplay. Megan Park‘s queer coming-of-age drama My Old Ass starring  Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella, the latter being was nominated for Best Breakthrough Performance.

In addition to Stella, the Breakthrough Performance is stacked with performers from queer movies including Katy O’Brian for Love Lies Bleeding, Mason Alexander Park for National Anthem, René Pérez Joglar for the aforementioned In The Summers, and Isaac Krasner, star of the queer male sexual awakening pic Big Boys from Corey Sherman.

Big Boys is also nominated for the John Cassavetes Award, which is given to the best feature made for under $1 million. Other nominees in the category include the aforementioned Girls Will Be Girls and Vera Drew‘s The People’s Joker.

On the TV side, Baby Reindeer and English Teacher received four nominations apiece on the heels of the FX epic drama Shōgun which leads with five.

Baby Reindeer and English Teacher are nominated in many of the same categories including Best New Scripted Series. Richard Gadd from Baby Reindeer and English Teacher’s Brian Jordan Alvarez (both actors created their shows) were nominated for Best Lead Performance along with Andrew Scott for Ripley, Kathryn Hahn for queer MCU favorite Agatha All Along, Lily Gladstone for Under the Bridge, Julianne Moore for Mary & George, and Julio Torres (the only name in both film and TV categories) for Fantasmas. Agatha All Along‘s Joe Locke and Patti LuPone also scored performance noms for Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Supporting Performance, respectively.

On Team Baby Reindeer, Nava Mau was nominated for Best Supporting Performance while co-star Jessica Gunning is up for Best Breakthrough Performance. Meanwhile, Enrico Colantoni and Stepanie Koenig are representing Team English Teacher in the category.

Other notable nominees include Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras‘s Hummingbirds for Best Documentary as well as Hollywood Black, Ren Faire, and Social Studies for Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series.

Read the full list of nominees here or watch below.