Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
| Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Independent Spirit Awards |
| First awarded | She's Gotta Have It (1986) |
| Currently held by | A Thousand and One (2023) |
| Website | spiritawards |
The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It is usually given to the director (or directors) and producer (or producers). The "first feature" designation is applied to the director not the producer(s). Therefore, producers have been nominated multiple times. It was first presented in 1986 with Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It being the first recipient of the award.
In 2000, this category was split into two separate categories: one for films with budgets over $500,000 and a new category, the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, which was restricted to films with budgets under $500,000. In 2001, films could be eligible regardless of their budget as long as it was feature film directorial debut.
Winners and nominees
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Get Low | Aaron Schneider | Dean Zanuck and David Gundlach |
| Everything Strange and New | Frazer Bradshaw | Laura Techera Francia and A.D. Liano | |
| The Last Exorcism | Daniel Stamm | Eric Newman, Eli Roth, Marc Abraham and Thomas A. Bliss | |
| Night Catches Us | Tanya Hamilton | Ronald Simon, Sean Costello and Jason Orans | |
| Tiny Furniture | Lena Dunham | Kyle Martin and Alicia Van Couvering | |
| 2011 | Margin Call | J. C. Chandor | Joe Jenckes, Robert Ogden Barnum, Corey Moosa, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson and Zachary Quinto |
| Another Earth | Mike Cahill | Hunter Gray, Mike Cahill, Brit Marling and Nicholas Shumaker | |
| In the Family | Patrick Wang | Patrick Wang, Andrew van den Houten and Robert Tonino | |
| Martha Marcy May Marlene | Sean Durkin | Josh Mond, Antonio Campos, Chris Maybach and Patrick Cunningham | |
| Natural Selection | Robbie Pickering | Brion Hambell and Paul Jensen | |
| 2012 | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | Stephen Chbosky | Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith and John Malkovich |
| Fill the Void | Rama Burshtein | Assaf Amir | |
| Gimme the Loot | Adam Leon | Natalie Difford, Dominic Buchanan and Jamund Washington | |
| Safety Not Guaranteed | Colin Trevorrow | Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, Stephanie Langhoff, Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow | |
| Sound of My Voice | Zal Batmanglij | Hans Ritter, Brit Marling and Shelley Surpin | |
| 2013 | Fruitvale Station | Ryan Coogler | Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker |
| Blue Caprice | Alexandre Moors | Isen Robbins, Aimee Schoof, Ron Simons, Stephen Tedeschi, Brian O'Connell, Kim Jackson and Will Rowbotham | |
| Concussion | Stacie Passon | Cliff Chenfeld, Anthony Cupo and Rose Troche | |
| Una Noche | Lucy Mulloy | Daniel Mulloy, Lucy Mulloy, Maite Artieda and Sandy Perez Aguila | |
| Wadjda | Haifaa al-Mansour | Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul | |
| 2014 | Nightcrawler | Dan Gilroy | Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Michel Litvak, Jake Gyllenhaal and David Lancaster |
| Dear White People | Justin Simien | Effie Brown, Ann Le, Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Justin Simien and Lena Waithe | |
| A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | Ana Lily Amirpour | Justin Begnaud and Sina Sayyah | |
| Obvious Child | Gillian Robespierre | Elisabeth Holm | |
| She's Lost Control | Anja Marquardt | Anja Marquardt, Mollye Asher and Kiara C. Jones | |
| 2015 | The Diary of a Teenage Girl | Marielle Heller | Miranda Bailey, Anne Carey, Bert Hamelinck, and Madeline Samit |
| James White | Josh Mond | Max Born, Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Melody Roscher, and Eric Schultz | |
| Manos sucias | Josef Kubota Wladyka | Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes | |
| Mediterranea | Jonas Carpignano | Jason Michael Berman, Chris Columbus, Jon Coplon, Christoph Daniel, Andrew Kortschak, John Lesher, Ryan Lough, Justin Nappi, Alain Peyrollaz, Gwyn Sannia, Marc Schmidheiny, Victor Shapiro, and Ryan Zacarias | |
| Songs My Brother Taught Me | Chloé Zhao | Chloé Zhao, Mollye Asher, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Angela C. Lee, and Forest Whitaker | |
| 2016 [5][6] |
The Witch | Robert Eggers | Robert Eggers, Daniel Bekerman, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, and Rodrigo Teixeira |
| The Childhood of a Leader | Brady Corbet | Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Chris Coen, Ron Curtis, Helena Danielsson, Mona Fastvold, and István Major | |
| The Fits | Anna Rose Holmer | Anna Rose Holmer and Lisa Kjerulff | |
| Other People | Chris Kelly | Sam Bisbee, Adam Scott, and Naomi Scott | |
| Swiss Army Man | Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan | Miranda Bailey, Lawrence Inglee, Lauren Mann, Amanda Marshall, Eyal Rimmon, and Jonathan Wang | |
| 2017 [7] |
Ingrid Goes West | Matt Spicer | Jared Goldman, Adam Mirels, Robert Mirels, Aubrey Plaza, Tim White, and Trevor White |
| Columbus | Kogonada | Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Aaron Boyd, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Andrew Miano, and Chris Weitz | |
| Menashe | Joshua Z. Weinstein | Yoni Brook, Traci Carlson, Daniel Finkelman, and Alex Lipschultz | |
| Oh Lucy! | Atsuko Hirayanagi | Jessica Elbaum, Yukie Kito, and Han West | |
| Patti Cake$ | Geremy Jasper | Chris Columbus, Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Noah Stahl, and Rodrigo Teixeira | |
| 2018 | Sorry to Bother You | Boots Riley | Nina Yang Bongiovi, Kelly Williams, Jonathan Duffy, Charles D. King, George Rush, and Forest Whitaker |
| Hereditary | Ari Aster | Kevin Frakes, Lars Knudsen, and Buddy Patrick | |
| The Tale | Jennifer Fox | Jennifer Fox, Oren Moverman, Laura Rister, Mynette Louie, Simone Pero, Lawrence Inglee, Sol Bondy, Regina K. Scully, Lynda Weinman, and Reka Posta | |
| We the Animals | Jeremiah Zagar | Jeremy Yaches, Christina D. King, Andrew Goldman, and Paul Mezey | |
| Wildlife | Paul Dano | Oren Moverman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, Ann Ruark, Alex Saks, Andrew Duncan, and Paul Dano | |
| 2019 [8] |
Booksmart | Olivia Wilde | Megan Ellison, Chelsea Barnard, David Distenfield, Jessica Elbaum, Katie Silberman |
| The Climb | Michael Angelo Covino | Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin, and Noah Lang | |
| Diane | Kent Jones | Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Caroline Kaplan, and Oren Moverman | |
| The Last Black Man in San Francisco | Joe Talbot | Khaliah Neal, Joe Talbot, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Christina Oh | |
| The Mustang | Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | Alain Goldman | |
| See You Yesterday | Stefon Bristol | Spike Lee |
2020s
| Year | Winner | Director(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 [9] |
Sound of Metal | Darius Marder | Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Bill Benz and Kathy Benz |
| The 40-Year-Old Version | Radha Blank | Lena Waithe, Jordan Fudge, Radha Blank, Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jennifer Semler and Rishi Rajani | |
| I Carry You With Me | Heidi Ewing | Heidi Ewing, Mynette Louie, Gabriela Maire and Edher Campos | |
| Miss Juneteenth | Channing Godfrey Peoples | Toby Halbrooks, Tim Headington, Jeanie Igoe, James M. Johnston, Theresa Page and Neil Creque Williams | |
| Nine Days | Edson Oda | Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Matthew Linder, Laura Tunstall and Datari Turner | |
| 2021 [10] |
7 Days | Roshan Sethi | Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn |
| Holler | Nicole Riegel | Adam Cobb, Rachel Gould, Katie McNeill, Jamie Patricof and Christy Spitzer Thornton | |
| Queen of Glory | Nana Mensah | Baff Akoto, Anya Migdal, Kelley Robins Hicks and Jamund Washington | |
| Test Pattern | Shatara Michelle Ford | Pin-Chun Liu and Yu-Hao Su | |
| Wild Indian | Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. | Thomas Mahoney, Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr., and Eric Tavitian | |
| 2022 [11] |
Aftersun | Charlotte Wells | Mark Ceryak, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski |
| Emily the Criminal | John Patton Ford | Tyler Davidson, Aubrey Plaza, Drew Sykes | |
| The Inspection | Elegance Bratton | Effie T. Brown, Chester Algernal Gordon | |
| Murina | Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović | Danijel Pek, Rodrigo Teixeira | |
| Palm Trees and Power Lines | Jamie Dack | Leah Chen Baker | |
| 2023 [12] |
A Thousand and One | A. V. Rockwell | Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, and Brad Weston |
| All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt | Raven Jackson | Maria Altamirano, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins, and Adele Romanski | |
| Chronicles of a Wandering Saint | Tomás Gómez Bustillo | Gewan Brown and Amanda Freedman | |
| Earth Mama | Savanah Leaf | Sam Bisbee, Shirley O'Connor, Medb Riordan, and Cody Ryder | |
| Upon Entry | Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez | Sergio Adrià, Carlos Juárez, Alba Sotorra, Carles Torras, and Xosé Zapata |
References
- ^ "Spirit Awards: Year Of Film Independents". Los Angeles Times. 1987-03-30. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
- ^ BAM|Lightning Over Braddock
- ^ The Bible and Gun Club - Variety
- ^ Quattro Noza - Variety
- ^ Spirit Awards: 'The Witch' Wins Best First Feature-Hollywood Reporter
- ^ ‘The Witch’ Wins 2017 Independent Spirit Award For Best First Feature-IndieWire
- ^ Spirit Awards: 'Ingrid Goes West' Wins Best First Feature-Hollywood Reporter
- ^ These Are Your 2019 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominees!-Film Independent
- ^ 2021 Independent Spirit Awards Winner's List|IndieWire
- ^ Spirit Awards Winners: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Lost Daughter’ Wins Best Feature — Full List|IndieWire
- ^ Davis, Clayton (November 22, 2022). "Independent Spirit Awards Nominations: 'Everything Everywhere' Leads With Eight Noms". Variety. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
- ^ "Film Independent Spirit Awards (2024)". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-02-25.