The awards season for movies are coming closer with plenty of speculation as to who the front runners are. Well, some suspicions and pull quotes have been confirmed with Film Independent’s Spirit Awards announced the nominees for 2015.

If you’ve been to the theaters lately, you’ll probably guess that the tone of the awards fare is pretty bleak, but Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) garnered six Spirit Award nominations including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor (Michael Keaton), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone), and Best Cinematographer (Emmanuel Lubezki). 

The wonderful Jenny Slate also got a Best Actress nomination for her great performance in Obvious Child.

Everything else nominated was dramatic, gritty, heart wrenching, etc.