Independent Spirit Award Nominees

A washed-up actor who once played an iconic superhero must overcome his ego and family trouble as he mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory.

Filmed over short periods from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood is a ground-breaking cinematic experience covering 12 years in the life of a family. At the centre is Mason, who with his sister Samantha, is taken on an emotional and transcendent journey through the years, from childhood to adulthood.

After Ben and George get married, George is fired from his teaching post, forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing -- a situation that weighs heavily on all involved.

Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man's life. Andrew's passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability -- and his sanity.

A satire that follows the stories of four black students at an Ivy League college where a riot breaks out over a popular 'African American' themed party thrown by white students. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the film explores racial identity in 'post-racial' America while weaving a universal story of forging one's unique path in the world.

In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.

When Lou Bloom, a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

A chronicle of Jimi Hendrix's early years in New York and London through his Monterey Pop triumph.

Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangiers, an underground musician, deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover. Their love story has already endured several centuries at least, but their debauched idyll is soon disrupted by her wild and uncontrollable younger sister. Can these wise but fragile outsiders continue to survive as the modern world collapses around them?

A 1920's-set drama centered on Ewa, a Polish woman who, after immigrating to New York in the hope of a better life for her and her sister, falls prey to a mysterious man named Bruno.

Brooklyn comedian Donna Stern gets dumped, fired and pregnant just in time for the worst/best St. Valentine's Day of her life.

In New York City 1981, an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.

Ricky, a 13-year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, gets lost one day in the New York City subway system. While his mother frantically searches for him above ground, the sensory-sensitive Ricky is exposed to the cacophony, eccentricity, and menace found in New York's underground (including some scenes shot during Hurricane Sandy, which came to figure into the film's story), resulting in a truly authentic view into both the wonders and the horrors of what lies below.

A drama centered on the awakening of the painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.

On the brink of separation, Ethan and Sophie escape to a beautiful vacation house for a weekend getaway in an attempt to save their marriage. What begins as a romantic and fun retreat soon becomes surreal, when an unexpected discovery forces the two to examine themselves, their relationship, and their future.

Awkward, lonely, and often playing the third wheel, Lila is determined to emulate the sexual exploits of her more experienced best friend. She fixates on Sammy, a tough older guy, when she hears that “he’ll sleep with anyone.” Deluded in her romantic pursuit, Lila tries desperately to insert herself into Sammy’s gritty world, but in doing so she puts herself into a dangerously vulnerable situation.

A drama about a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who, on the verge of taking her vows, discovers a dark family secret dating from the terrible years of the Nazi occupation.

On the outskirts of a small coastal town in the Barents Sea, where whales sometimes come to its bay, lives an ordinary family: Nikolai, his wife Lilya and their teenage son Romka. The family is haunted by a local corrupted mayor who is trying to take away the land from Nikolai. To save their homes Nikolai calls his old Army friend in Moscow, who has now become an authoritative attorney. Together they decide to fight back and collect dirt on the mayor.

A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household.

An embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence; a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.

Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave.

The story of a model Swedish family -- handsome businessman Tomas, his willowy wife Ebba and their two blond children -- on a skiing holiday in the French Alps. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche suddenly bears down on the happy diners. With people fleeing in all directions and his wife and children in a state of panic, Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch.

The story of an alien in human form. Part road movie, part science fiction, part real, itÂ’s a film about seeing our world through alien eyes.

A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.

In the midst of renewed civil war and a scramble for Congo's natural resources, a group of brave individuals risk their lives to save the last of the world's mountain gorillas.

A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.

A pair of former brothers-in-law embark on a road trip through Iceland.

San Francisco, 1985: Frankie confronts the challenges of being an understudy in a modern dance company as he embarks on a budding relationship with Todd, a veteran dancer in the same company and the bad boy to Frankie's innocent. As Frankie and Todd's friendship deepens, they navigate a world of risk - it's the early years of the epidemic - but also a world of hope, humor, visual beauty and musical relief.

Private Adam Winfield was a 21-year-old soldier in Afghanistan when he attempted with the help of his father to alert the military to heinous war crimes his platoon was committing. But Winfield's pleas went unheeded. Left on his own and with threats to his life, Private Winfield was himself drawn into the moral abyss, forced to make a split-second decision that would change his life forever.

A soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.