The 2014 Independent Spirit Awards nominations were just announced today and many of the Oscar frontrunners were nominated for Best Picture.

12 Years A Slave leads the category for Best Picture. Director Steve McQueen also got nominated for Best Director and Chiwetel Ejiofor was nominated for Best Actor. Lupita Nyong'o also snagged a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

The other films nominated for Best Picture are Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis and J.C. Chandor’s All Is Lost. Surprisingly, Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha was also nominated in the top category, although it hasn’t received much awards buzz. The black & white film with Greta Gerwig was also nominated for editing.

The rest of the Best Director nominees are Payne, Chandor, Mud’s Jeff Nichols and Upstream Color’s Shane Carruth.

Nichols and the rest of the cast of Mud will receive the special Robert Altman Award, named after the legendary director.

Blue Is The Warmest Color leads the Best International Film category. The film will go up against A Touch of Sin, Gloria, The Great Beauty and The Hunt.

You can check out all the other nominees here. Comedian Patton Oswalt will host the awards in Santa Monica on Match 1. The ceremony will air on IFC.

image: image.net/Jaap Buitendijk