Of course, due to the vagaries of the nomination process, neither film was even eligible for the top prize. The Independent Spirit Awards have separate categories for first-time features and first-time directors, meaning Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, Kimberly Pierce's Boys Don't Cry and 1999's biggest indie smash, The Blair Witch Project, couldn't compete with films by established art-house greats.
With those rookie-helmed films MIA from the Best Feature field, Alexander Payne's Election, Steven Soderbergh's The Limey and David Lynch's The Straight Story look to be the films to beat. Michael Polish's Siamese twins-in-love flick, Twin Falls Idaho and the Robert Altman potboiler Cookie's Fortune round out the category.
All told, Election and The Limey led the way with five nods each. In addition to top feature, Election is up for actress (Golden Globe-nominated Reese Witherspoon as the driven, wannabe student body president Tracy Flick), director, screenplay and debut performance (Jessica Campbell). The Limey is up for feature, director, male lead (Terence Stamp as a revenge-minded ex-con), supporting male (Luis Guzman) and screenplay.
The Straight Story, Lynch's sweet look at a tractor-driving man on a mission, is up for four awards--feature, director, male lead (Richard Farnsworth) and first screenplay. So is Boys Don't Cry, which scored noms in first feature, female lead (possible Oscar nominee Hilary Swank as the gender-bending protagonist), supporting female (Chlöe Sevigny) and first screenplay. Being John Malkovich is up for three trophies: first feature, male lead (John Cusack) and first screenplay.
The Independent Spirit Awards will be presented March 25 on the beach in Santa Monica, California, with Illeana Douglas hosing. The awards are voted on by the 9,000 members of the Independent Feature Project.
Here's the complete rundown of nominees for the 15th Independent Spirit Awards.
Feature: Election; The Limey; The Straight Story; Sugar Town; Cookie's Fortune
Director: Alexander Payne, Election; Harmony Korine, julien donkey-boy; Steven Soderbergh, The Limey; David Lynch, The Straight Story; Doug Liman, Go
First Feature (over $500,000): Being John Malkovich; Boys Don't Cry; Three Seasons; Twin Falls Idaho; Xiu Xiu the Sent Down Girl
First Feature (under $500,000): The Blair Witch Project; La Ciudad; Compensation; Judy Berlin; Treasure Island
Female Lead: Diane Lane, Walk on the Moon; Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds; Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry; Susan Traylor, Valerie Flake; Reese Witherspoon, Election
Male Lead: John Cusack, Being John Malkovich; Richard Farnsworth, The Straight Story; Terence Stamp, The Limey; David Strathairn, Limbo; Noble Willingham, The Corndog Man
Supporting Female: Barbara Barrie, Judy Berlin; Vanessa Martinez, Limbo; Sarah Polley, Go; Chloe Sevigny, Boys Don't Cry; Jean Smart, Guinevere
Supporting Male: Charles S. Dutton, Cookie's Fortune; Luis Guzman, The Limey; Terrence Howard, The Best Man; Clark Gregg, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole; Steve Zahn, Happy, Texas
Debut Performance: Kimberly J. Brown, Tumbleweeds; Jessica Campbell, Election; Jade Gordon, Sugar Town; Toby Smith, Drylongso; Chris Stafford, Edge of Seventeen
Screenplay: Kevin Smith, Dogma; Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Election; Audrey Wells, Guinevere; Lem Dobbs, The Limey; James Merendino, SLC Punk!
First Screenplay: Tod Williams, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole; Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich; Kimberly Peirce, Andy Bienen, Boys Don't Cry; Anne Rapp, Cookie's Fortune; John Roach, Mary Sweeney, The Straight Story
Cinematographer: M. David Mullen, Twin Falls Idaho; Lisa Rinzler, Three Seasons; Anthony Dod Mantle, julien donkey, boy; Jeffrey Seckendorf, Judy Berlin; Harlan Bosmajian, La Ciudad
Foreign Film: All About My Mother, Spain; Run Lola Run, Germany; My Son the Fanatic, England; Topsy, Turvy, England; Rosetta, Belgium, France
Motorola Producers Award: Pam Koffler, producer ofI'm Losing You andOffice Killer; Eva Kolodner, producer ofBoys Don't Cry andHide and Seek; Paul Mezey, producer ofLa Ciudad; Christine Walker, producer ofBackroads andHomo Heights
DLJ Direct Truer than Fiction Award (documentary filmmaker): Owsley Brown, Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles; Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgan, On the Ropes; Michael Camerini, Shari Robertson, Well Founded Fear; Rory Kennedy, American Hollow
Movado Someone to Watch Award: Dan Clark, The Item; Julian Goldberger, Trans; Lisanne Skyler, Getting to Know You; Cauleen Smith, Drylongso