Miguel Arteta's Chuck & Buck, Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream and Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count On Me have each received five nominations for the 16th Annual IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards. The Independent Feature Project/West announced the nominees in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, David Gordon Green's George Washington and Jordan Walker-Pearlman's The Visit each earned four nods. Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon earned three nominations, including Best Picture, leading the larger-budget nominees.

The Best Feature category includes a contest between a David and several Goliaths, with the ultra-low budget George Washington facing Requiem, Crouching Tiger and Before Night Falls as well as Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai.

Lee, Aronofsky, Arteta and Schnabel were nominated for Best Director joined by Christopher Guest for his mockumentary Best In Show. Lonergan's film was nominated for Best First Feature, joining Karyn Kusama's Girlfight, Gina Prince-Blythewood's Love & Basketball, Jordan Walker-Pearlman's The Visit and Ben Younger's Boiler Room.

Lonergan also received a Best Screenplay nod along with Mike White for
Chuck & Buck, Valerie Breiman for Love & Sex, Raymond De Felitta for Two Family House and Robert Dillon for Waking The Dead.

Chuck & Buck was among the nominees for the award for Best Feature Under $500,000. George Washington, with a budget of $48,000, was ineligible in the category because of its Best Feature nomination. The film's ensemble cast was nominated collectively for Best Debut Performance as was White for Chuck & Buck.

Tim Roth's English-language British film The War Zone was amongst the nominees for Best Foreign Film joining Lars Von Trier's English-language multi-national co-production Dancer In The Dark, Wong Kar-Wai's Hong Kong movie In The Mood For Love, Santosh Sivan's Indian arthouse hit The Terrorist and Bahman Ghobadi's A Time For Drunken Horses, the Iranian entry for the Academy Awards.

The nominations were cause for celebration at Artisan Entertainment. Three of its releases, Requiem, Chuck & Buck and Ghost Dog, earned a total of eleven nominations.

In order to be eligible, a film must have shown at a commercial theatre during the 2000 calendar year or have played at one of the following six film festivals: New York, Seattle, Sundance, Telluride, Toronto or New Directors/New Films. The nominators are asked to consider such criteria as a filmmaker's uniqueness of vision, budgetary limitations and percentage of independent financing.

16TH ANNUAL IFP/WEST INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS

BEST FEATURE
Before Night Falls
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
George Washington
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Requiem for a Dream

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Boiler Room
Girlfight
Love & Basketball
The Visit
You Can Count on Me

BEST FEATURE - Under $500,000
Bunny
Chuck & Buck
Everything Put Together
Groove
Our Song

BEST DIRECTOR
Ang Lee Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Christopher Guest Best in Show
Darren Aronofsky Requiem for a Dream
Julian Schnabel Before Night Falls
Miguel Arteta Chuck & Buck

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Joan Allen The Contender
Ellen Burstyn Requiem for a Dream
Sanaa Lathan Love & Basketball
Laura Linney You Can Count on Me
Kelly MacDonald Two Family House

BEST MALE LEAD
Javier Bardem Before Night Falls
Adrien Brody Restaurant
Billy Crudup Jesus' Son
Hill Harper The Visit
Mark Ruffalo You Can Count on Me

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Pat Carroll Songcatcher
Jennifer Connelly Requiem for a Dream
Marcia Gay Harden Pollock
Lupe Ontiveros Chuck & Buck
Zhang Ziyi Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Willem Dafoe Shadow of the Vampire
Cole Hauser Tigerland
Gary Oldman The Contender
Giovanni Ribisi The Gift
Billy Dee Williams The Visit

BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE
Rory Culkin You Can Count on Me
Michelle Rodriguez Girlfight
Emmy Rossum Songcatcher
Mike White Chuck & Buck

(Ensemble)
Candace Evanofski George Washington
Curtis Cotton III George Washington
Damian Jewan Lee George Washington
Donald Holden George Washington
Rachael Handy George Washington

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
David Gordon Green George Washington
Ross Klavan & Michael McGruther Tigerland
Gina Prince-Bythewood Love & Basketball
Jordan Walker-Pearlman The Visit
Ben Younger Boiler Room

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
Lou Bogue Shadow of the Vampire
John De Borman Hamlet
Matthew Libatique Requiem For A Dream
Tim Orr George Washington
Xavier Perez Grobet & Guillermo Rosas Before Night Falls

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Dancer in the Dark
In the Mood for Love
The Terrorist
A Time for Drunken Horses
The War Zone

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Dark Days
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Long Night's Journey Into Day
Paragraph 175
Sound and Fury