Little Miss Sunshine just racked up another superlative: most nominated.

The Sundance fave turned sleeper hit received a leading five nominations for the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, pitting it nod for art-house nod with Half Nelson.

While the darkly comic tale of a dysfunctional family's quest to get their daughter enrolled in the titular pageant is vying for Best Feature against Half Nelson, American Gun, The Dead Girl and Pan's Labyrinth, its most famous faces didn't register in the individual categories.

Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette came up empty, with the film's only acting nods going to Paul Dano and Alan Arkin, who go head to head in the Best Supporting Male race.

Little Miss Sunshine helmers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris round out the film's five nominations with a joint nod for Best Director.

Half Nelson, another Sundance showpiece, about a drug-addicted high school teacher who buys from his students, fared slightly better with its leading man. Ryan Gosling, who plays the downward-spiraling teacher, is up for Best Male Lead.

The category's competition is stiff and features the most name-brand competitors—with Gosling pitted against Thank You for Smoking's Aaron Eckhart, The Painted Veil's Edward Norton and American Gun's Forest Whitaker.

Half Nelson's leading lady, Shareeka Epps, also managed to score a nod for Best Female Lead, vying for the honor against some serious Spirit Awards vets.

Michelle Williams has been promoted from last year's supporting race for Brokeback Mountain to Best Female Lead for her role in the post-9-11 drama Land of Plenty. Not a bad reward for a role she filmed, according to IMDb.com, nearly two years ago.

Rounding out the contenders for Best Female Lead: Robin Wright Penn, for her role in Sorry, Haters, and Catherine O'Hara for her role in Christopher Guest's latest company comedy, For Your Consideration. The title apparently did the trick.

The Best Supporting Female category also saw its share of big names, with American Gun's Marcia Gay Harden, Friends with Money's Frances McDormand and Stephanie Daley's Amber Tamblyn all among the nominees.

For an awards show that bills itself as the anti-Oscars, plenty of Academy names made it onto the bill, including a current box-office heavyweight, with Bond himself getting in on the indie action.

Daniel Craig received a nomination for Best Supporting Male for his role in the other Truman Capote biopic, Infamous. Steven Soderbergh also managed to earn a nod for directing Bubble.

The awards show also marks the first—potentially of many—posthumous nominations for legendary helmer Robert Altman, whose star-studded A Prairie Home Companion earned him a Best Director nod. The iconoclastic filmmaker died earlier this month.

In addition to the would-be winners, the Independent Spirit Awards announced the recipients of its Special Distinction Awards, to be given jointly to director David Lynch and Laura Dern for their "visionary" collaboration on such films as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and the upcoming Inland Empire.

Sarah Silverman returns to host the laid-back ceremony for the second consecutive year, to be held once again in a tent on the Santa Monica beach Feb. 24, the day before the Oscars. IFC will carry the live broadcast.

Here's the complete list of nominees:

Best Feature

• American Gun
• The Dead Girl
• Half Nelson
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Pan's Labyrinth

Best Director

• Robert Altman, A Prairie Home Companion
• Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine
• Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
• Karen Moncrieff, The Dead Girl
• Steven Soderbergh, Bubble

Best First Feature

• Day Night Day Night
• Man Push Cart
• The Motel
• Sweet Land
• Wristcutters: A Love Story

John Cassavetes Award

• Chalk
• Four Eyed Monsters
• Old Joy
• Quinceañera
• Twelve and Holding

Best Screenplay

• Neil Burger, The Illusionist
• Nicole Holofcener, Friends with Money
• Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil
• Jason Reitman, Thank You for Smoking
• Jeff Stanzler, Sorry, Haters

• Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
• Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
• Goran Dukic, Wristcutters: A Love Story
• Dito Montiel, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
• Gabrielle Zevin, Conversations with Other Women

Best Female Lead

• Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
• Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration
• Elizabeth Reaser, Sweet Land
• Michelle Williams, Land of Plenty
• Robin Wright Penn, Sorry, Haters

Best Male Lead

• Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking
• Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
• Edward Norton, The Painted Veil
• Ahmad Razvi, Man Push Cart
• Forest Whitaker, American Gun

• Melonie Diaz, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
• Marcia Gay Harden, American Gun
• Mary Beth Hurt, The Dead Girl
• Frances McDormand, Friends with Money
• Amber Tamblyn, Stephanie Daley

• Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Raymond J. Barry, Steel City
• Daniel Craig, Infamous
• Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine
• Channing Tatum, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Best Cinematography

• Four Eyed Monsters
• Brothers of the Head
• Pan's Labyrinth
• Wild Tigers I Have Known
• Man Push Cart

Best Documentary

• A Lion in the House
• My Country, My Country
• The Road to Guantanamo
• The Trials of Darryl Hunt
• You're Gonna Miss Me

Best Foreign Film

• 12:08 East of Bucharest (Romania)
• The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (Phillipines)
• Chronicle of an Escape (Argentina)
• Days of Glory (France/Morroco/Algeria/Belgium)
• The Lives of Others (Germany)

• David Lynch and Laura Dern