“We the Animals,” a gritty coming-of-age story about three boys in growing up in a dysfunctional by tight-knit New York family, earned a leading five nominations Friday for the 34th Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Despite its leading number of nominations, the film did not land on the list of best feature film nominees. It was, however, nominated for best first feature film, along with “Hereditary,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “The Tale” and “Wildlife.”
Nominations for best feature film went to “Eighth Grade,” “First Reformed,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Leave No Trace” and “You Were Never Really Here.”
Glenn Close was nominated for best actress for “The Wife,” along with Toni Collette for “Hereditary,” Elsie Fisher for “Eighth Grade,” Regina Hall for “Support the Girls” and Helena Howard for “Madeline’s Madeline.”
Best actor nominations went to John Cho for “Searching,” Daveed Diggs for “Blindspotting,” Ethan Hawke for “First Reformed,” Christian Malheiros for “Socrates” and Joaquin Phoenix for “You Were Never Really Here.”
The Spirit Awards, honoring the best in independent film productions, will be presented Feb. 23 in a tent adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier. The winner of the Spirit Award for best feature film has gone on to the win the best-picture Oscar in four of the past five years.
Nominations were announced at the W Hotel in Hollywood by Molly Shannon, Gemma Chan and Film Independent President Josh Welsh.