And the nominees for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards are...

Monday night brought the first ceremony of awards season as the Gotham Independent Film Awards took place in New York City, and the dust barely had time to settle before the nominations for indie cinema's most pretigious accolades - Film Independent's Spirit Awards - were announced on Tuesday evening.

Despite sharing Best Feature with Max Mills Beginners at the Gotham Awards, there was no place for Terrence Malick's divisive drama The Tree of Life (nor acclaimed efforts Like Crazy and We Need to Talk About Kevin) among the nominees, with Beginners set to contest Best Film - won last year by Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller Black Swan - with Jonathan Levine's 50/50, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter, Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist and Alexander Payne's The Descendants.

Mills, Winding Refn, Nichols, Michel Hazanavicius and Payne also received nods for Best Director, while the likes of Ryan Gosling (Drive), Woody Harrelson (Rampart), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), Albert Brooks (Drive), Christopher Plummer (Beginners), John C. Reilly (Cedar Rapids), Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn), Jessica Chastain (Take Shelter) and Anjelica Huston (50/50) are among the names vying for the acting honours. Take Shelter and The Artist lead the field with five nominations apiece, and you can take a look at the full list of nominees right here...

Best Film
50/50
Beginners
Drive
Take Shelter
The Artist
The Descendants

Best Director
Mike Mills (Beginners)
Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)
Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter)
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Alexander Payne (The Descendants)

Best First Feature
Another Earth
In The Family
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Natural Selection

Best Male Lead
Demian Bichir (A Better Life)
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Ryan Gosling (Drive)
Woody Harrelson (Rampart)
Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)

Best Female Lead
Lauren Ambrose (Think of Me)
Rachel Harris (Natural Selection)
Adepero Oduye (Pariah)
Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene)
Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

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 Supporting Female
Jessica Chastain (Take Shelter)
Anjelica Huston (50/50)
Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)
Harmony Santana (Gun Hill Road)
Shailene Woodley (The Descendants)

John Cassavetes Award (for best film made for under $500,000)
Bellflower
Circumstance
Hello Lonesome
Pariah
The Dynamiter

Best Documentary
An African Selection
Bill Cunningham New York
The Interrupters
The Redemption of General Butt Naked
We Were Here

Best Cinematography
Joel Hodge (Bellflower)
Benjamin Kasulke (The Off Hours)
Darius Khondji (Midnight in Paris)
Guillaume Shiffman (The Artist)
Jeffrey Waldron (The Dynamiter)

Best Screenplay
Joseph Cedar (Footnote)
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Tom McCarthy (Win Win)
Mike Mills (Beginners)
Alexander Payne (The Descendants)

Best First Screenplay
Mike Cahill and Brit Marling (Another Earth)
J.C. Chandor (Margin Call)
Patrick DeWitt (Terri)
Phil Johnston (Cedar Rapids)
Will Reiser (50/50)

Best Foreign Film
A Separation
Melancholia
Shame
The Kid With a Bike
Tyrannosaur

Robert Altman Award
Margin Call

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)

The Independent Spirit Awards will be presented on February 25th, one day prior to the 84th Academy Awards.