“Never Rarely Sometimes Always'” long list of accolades is growing. Already the winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Neorealism, and Best Screenplay from the National Society of Film Critics Awards, among other honors, Eliza Hittman’s abortion drama now leads in nominations for the 2021 Independent Spirit Awards, racking in seven nods.
Penned by Hittman, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” tells the story of Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), a 17-year-old girl from rural Pennsylvania facing an unintended — and unwanted — pregnancy. Along with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder), she travels to New York City in the hopes of accessing an abortion.
Three of five features competing for Best Feature at the Indie Spirit Awards are helmed by women: “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” a period drama about friends who launch a business in Oregon Territory, and Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a portrait of a 60-something woman who begins living in her van and traveling across the American West.
Hittman, Reichardt, and Zhao are up for Best Director, as is Emerald Fennell. Fennell is being recognized for “Promising Young Woman,” her revenge thriller about a woman determined to punish sexual abusers.
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Promising Young Woman,” and “The Half of It” are among the nominees for Best Screenplay. Hittman penned “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Fennell “Promising Young Woman,” and Alice Wu “The Half of It,” the story of a teenage girl who befriends a jock crushing on the same girl she is.
Three of the titles in the running for Best First Feature are helmed by women: Heidi Ewing’s cross-border love story “I Carry You With Me,” Channing Godfrey Peoples’ mother-daughter drama “Miss Juneteenth,” and Radha Blank’s “The 40-Year-Old Version,” a comedy about a struggling playwright who reinvents herself as a rapper.
Regina King’s “One Night in Miami” will receive the Robert Altman Award, which is presented to the ensemble cast, director, and casting director of a film. Based on a true story, the drama set in 1964 and sees Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, being crowned as the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and celebrating his win alongside Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke.
Best Documentary nominees include “Crip Camp,” Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrech’s tribute to a ramshackle summer camp for teenagers with disabilities that helped spark a revolution, “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” Kirsten Johnson’s tribute to her ailing father that sees her staging his death and recording it, and “Time,” Garrett Bradley’s portrait of a modern-day abolitionist.
This year’s ceremony is slated to take place April 22. Head over to Variety to check out all of the nominees. According to the trade, “42 percent of nominees were women and 37 percent were black, indigenous, and people of color.”
