If I were voting for the Film Independent Spirt Awards’ Best Feature prize, I wouldn’t think about it twice. It would have to be Nomadland. But the total number of Spirit Award nominations is often a tip-off, and the fact that Nomadland has only five suggests that it may not win the top prize. Eliza Hittman‘s Never Rarely Sometimes Always has tallied seven nominations, including for Best Feature…what does that tell you? I’ll tell you what it tells you. It tells you that Hittman’s film, a respected effort that doesn’t hold a candle to Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (’07), is the likely champ.

Significant paragraph in THR announcement story, written by Hilary Lewis and Mia Galuppo: