“The Artist” and “Take Shelter” lead the 2012 Spirit Award nominees

The winners will be announced February 25 on IFC.

At a ceremony in Los Angeles this morning, Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale announced the nominees for the 2012 Spirit Awards, which will be handed out on IFC on Saturday, February 25. And one night after it scored Best Film and Best Ensemble at the Gotham Awards, “Beginners” built more awards season momentum by landing four Spirit Award nominations: Best Feature, Best Director (Mike Mills), Best Screenplay (Mike Mills), and Best Supporting Male (Christopher Plummer). That put it one nomination behind the two biggest winners of the morning, “The Artist” and “Take Shelter,” which each received five nominations. “Drive,” “The Descendants,” and “Martha Marcy May Marlene” also received four nominations a piece.

Picking the winners is not going to be easy for the members fo Film Independent this year; there are a lot of very deserving films and filmmakers and some very competitive categories. Take Best International Film. The nominees are “A Separation,” “Melancholia,” “Shame,” “The Kid With a Bike,” and “Tyrannosaur.” I haven’t seen “The Kid With the Bike Yet” — it opens in the United States next spring — but all four other films are deserving winners (though if pressed, I’d vote for “A Separation”). Or what about Best Supporting Male? Plummer was outstanding in “Beginners” but so was Albert Brooks in “Drive;” John Hawkes was no slouch in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” either. I even liked John C. Reilly in “Cedar Rapids,” a great performance in a so-so movie. That’s going to be a very hard decision.

You’ll find the full list of nominees below. My advice: print ‘em out and use them as a checklist. If you haven’t seen any of these outstanding indie films, now you have to.

The 2012 Spirit Award Nominees

BEST FEATURE
“The Artist”
“Beginners”
“The Descendants”
“Drive”
“50/50″
“Take Shelter”

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Mike Mills, “Beginners”
Jeff Nichols, “Take Shelter”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Nicolas Winding Refn, “Drive”

BEST SCREENPLAY
Joseph Cedar, “Footnote”
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Tom McCarthy, “Win Win”
Mike Mills, “Beginners”
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, “The Descendants”

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Another Earth”
“In the Family”
“Margin Call”
“Martha Marcy May Marlene”
“Natural Selection”

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Mike Cahill, Brit Marling, “Another Earth”
J.C. Chandor, “Margin Call”
Patrick deWitt, “Terri”
Phil Johnston, “Cedar Rapids”
Will Reiser, “50/50″

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
“Bellflower”
“Circumstance”
“Hello Lonesome”
“Pariah”
“The Dynamiter”

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Lauren Ambrose, “Think of Me”
Rachael Harris, “Natural Selection”
Adepero Oduye, “Pariah”
Elizabeth Olsen, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”

BEST MALE LEAD
Demian Bechir, “A Better Life”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Ryan Gosling, “Drive”
Woody Harrelson, “Rampart”
Michael Shannon, “Take Shelter”

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jessica Chastain, “Take Shelter”
Anjelica Huston, “50/50″
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Harmony Santana, “Gun Hill Road”
Shailene Woodley, “The Descendants”

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Albert Brooks, “Drive”
John Hawkes, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
John C. Reilly, “Cedar Rapids”
Corey Stoll, “Midnight in Paris”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Joel Hodge, “Bellflower”
Benjamin Kasulke, “The Off Hours”
Darius Khondji, “Midnight in Paris”
Guillame Schiffma, “Pariah”
Jeffrey Waldron, “The Dynamiter”

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“An African Election”
“Bill Cunningham New York”
“The Interrupters”
“The Redemption of General Butt Naked”
“We Were Here”

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
“A Separation”
“Melancholia”
“Shame”
“The Kid With a Bike”
“Tyrannosaur”

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Chad Burris, “Mosquita y Mari”
Sophia Lin, “Take Shelter”
Josh Mond, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Simon Arthur, “Silver Tongues”
Mark Jackson, “Without”
Nicholas Ozeki, “Mamitas”

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Heather Courtney, “Where Soldiers Come From”
Danfung Dennis, “Hell and Back Again”
Alma Har’El, “Bombay Beach”

What do you think of the 2012 Spirit Award nominees? Tell us in the comments below or write to us on Facebook and Twitter.