Independent Spirit Award / Best Supporting Actor
Award-winning and nominated actor for the Independent Spirit Award in the category Best Supporting Actor (Best Supporting Male) .
In 2007, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018, the award winner matched the Oscar winner in the Best Supporting Actor category .
| statistics | Surname | number | year |
| Most frequent awards | Steve Buscemi | 2 | 1993, 2002 |
| Benicio del Toro | 2 | 1996, 1997 | |
| Willem Dafoe | 2 | 2001, 2020 | |
| Most frequent nominations (* = victory) |
Steve Buscemi | 3 | 1990, 1993 *, 2002 * |
| David Strathairn | 3 | 1988, 1992 *, 1993 | |
| Most frequent nominations without a win | Gary Farmer | 3 | 1990, 1997, 1999 |
1980s
1988
Morgan Freeman - Glittering Asphalt (Street Smart)
- Wings Hauser - Tough Guys Do not Dance (Tough Guys Do not Dance)
- James Earl Jones - Matewan
- Vincent Price - whales in August (The Whales of August)
- David Strathairn - Matewan
1989
Lou Diamond Phillips - Stand and Deliver
- Ernest Borgnine - Brooklyn Kid (Spike of Bensonhurst)
- Divine - Hairspray
- John Lone - The Moderns
- John Turturro - Five Corners
1990s
1990
Max Perlich - Drugstore Cowboy
- Steve Buscemi - Mystery Train
- Scott Coffey - Shag - More Dancing (Shag)
- Gary Farmer - Two Cheyennes on the Highway (Powwow Highway)
- Screamin 'Jay Hawkins - Mystery Train
1991
Bruce Davison - Friendship for Life (Longtime Companion)
- Willem Dafoe - Wild at Heart - The Story of Sailor and Lula (Wild at Heart)
- Robin Harris - House Party
- Ben Lang - The Plot Against Harry (The Plot Against Harry)
- Tom Towles - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer: Tom Towles
1992
David Strathairn - City of Hope (City of Hope)
- William H. Macy - Homicide - Homicide
- John Malkovich - Born in Queens (Queens Logic)
- George T. Odom - Straight Out of Brooklyn
- Glenn Plummer - His Last Game (Pastime)
1993
Steve Buscemi - Reservoir Dogs - Wild Dogs (Reservoir Dogs)
- William Forsythe - Waterdance
- Jeff Goldblum - Beyond the White Line (Deep Cover)
- Wesley Snipes - Waterdance
- David Strathairn - Passion Fish
1994
Christopher Lloyd - Twenty Bucks - Money doesn't stink - or does it? (Twenty Bucks)
- David Chung - Little Jo - A Woman Among Wolves (The Ballad of Little Jo)
- Tate Donovan - The normal madness (Inside Monkey Zetterland)
- Todd Field - Ruby in Paradise
- Edward Furlong - American Heart - The Second Chance (American Heart)
1995
Chazz Palminteri - Bullets Over Broadway
- Giancarlo Esposito - Fresh
- Larry Pine - Vanja on 42nd Street (Vanya on 42nd Street)
- Eric Stoltz - Pulp Fiction
- Nicholas Turturro - Zoff in Federal Hill (Federal Hill)
1996
Benicio Del Toro - The Usual Suspects (The Usual Suspects)
- James LeGros - Living in Oblivion
- David Morse - Crossing Guard - It happened on the open road (Crossing Guard)
- Max Perlich - Georgia
- Harold Perrineau - Smoke
1997
- Kevin Corrigan - Walking and Talking
- Matthew Faber - Welcome to the Dollhouse (Welcome to the Dollhouse)
- Gary Farmer - Dead Man
- Richard Jenkins - Flirting with Disaster - A disaster of Hazzard (Flirting with Disaster)
1998
- Efrain Figueroa - Star Maps
- Samuel L. Jackson - Last Exit Reno (Sydney)
- Ajay Naidu - subUrbia - Sixpacks, Sex + Supermarkets (SubUrbia)
- Roy Scheider - The Family Secret (The Myth of Fingerprints)
1999
- James Coburn - The Hunted (Affliction)
- Charles S. Dutton - Blind Faith (Blind Faith)
- Gary Farmer - Smoke Signals
- Philip Seymour Hoffman - Happiness
2000s
2000
- Charles S. Dutton - Cookie's Fortune riot in Holly Springs (Cookie's Fortune)
- Luis Guzmán - The Limey
- Terrence Howard - The Best Man - wedding with obstacles (The Best Man)
- Clark Gregg - The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (The Adventures of Sebastian Cole)
2001
Willem Dafoe - Shadow of the Vampire
- Cole Hauser - Tigerland
- Gary Oldman - Character Assassination - Beyond Morals (The Contender)
- Giovanni Ribisi - The Gift - The Dark Gift
- Billy Dee Williams - The Visit
2002
- Don Cheadle - Things Behind the Sun
- Billy Kay - LIE - Long Island Expressway (LIE)
- Garrett Morris - Jackpot
- John C. Reilly - Relationships and Other Disasters (The Anniversary Party)
2003
Dennis Quaid - Far from Heaven (Far from Heaven)
- Alan Arkin - Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
- Ray Liotta - Narc
- John C. Reilly - The Good Girl
- Peter Weller - Ivansxtc
2004
- Judah Friedlander - American Splendor
- Troy Garity - Soldier's Girl
- Alessandro Nivola - Laurel Canyon
- Peter Sarsgaard - Shattered Glass
2005
Thomas Haden Church - Sideways
- Jon Gries - Napoleon Dynamite
- Aidan Quinn - Cavedweller
- Roger Robinson - Brother to Brother
- Peter Sarsgaard - Kinsey - The Truth About Sex (Kinsey)
2006
Matt Dillon - LA Crash (Crash)
- Firdous Bamji - The War Within
- Jesse Eisenberg - The Squid and the Whale (The Squid and the Whale)
- Barry Pepper - Three Burials (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada)
- Jeffrey Wright - Broken Flowers
2007
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
- Raymond J. Barry - Steel City
- Daniel Craig - Cold Blood - In the Footsteps of Truman Capote (Infamous)
- Paul Dano - Little Miss Sunshine
- Channing Tatum - Kids - In the Streets of New York (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints)
2008
- Marcus Carl Franklin - I'm Not There
- Kene Holliday - Great World of Sound
- Irrfan Khan - Namesake - Two Worlds, One Journey (The Namesake)
- Steve Zahn - Rescue Dawn
2009
- Anthony Mackie - Fatal Command - The Hurt Locker (The Hurt Locker)
- Charlie McDermott - Frozen River
- Jim Myron Ross - Ballast
- Haaz Sleiman - A Summer in New York - The Visitor (The Visitor)
2010s
2010
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger - The last message (The Messenger)
- Jemaine Clement - Gentlemen Broncos
- Christian McKay - Me and Orson Welles (Me and Orson Welles)
- Ray McKinnon - That Evening Sun
- Christopher Plummer - A Russian Summer (The Last Station)
2011
- Samuel L. Jackson - mothers and daughters (Mother and Child)
- Bill Murray - At The End Of The Road - A True Lies Story (Get Low)
- John Ortiz - Jack in Love (Jack Goes Boating)
- Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right
2012
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
- Albert Brooks - Drive
- John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene
- John C. Reilly - Welcome to Cedar Rapids (Cedar Rapids)
- Corey Stoll - Midnight in Paris
2013
Matthew McConaughey - Magic Mike
- David Oyelowo - Middle of Nowhere
- Michael Peña - End of Watch
- Sam Rockwell - 7 Psychos (Seven Psychopaths)
- Bruce Willis - Moonrise Kingdom
2014
Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
- Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
- Will Forte - Nebraska
- James Gandolfini - Enough said (Enough Said)
- Keith Stanfield - Short Term Dec.
2015
- Riz Ahmed - Nightcrawler - Every night has its price (Nightcrawler)
- Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
- Alfred Molina - Love Is Strange (Love Is Strange)
- Edward Norton - Birdman or ( The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
2016
Idris Elba - Beasts of No Nation
- Kevin Corrigan - Results
- Paul Dano - Love & Mercy
- Richard Jenkins - Bone Tomahawk
- Michael Shannon - 99 Homes - City Without a Conscience (99 Homes)
2017
Ben Foster - Hell or High Water
- Ralph Fiennes - A Bigger Splash
- Lucas Hedges - Manchester by the Sea
- Shia LaBeouf - American Honey
- Craig Robinson - Morris from America (Morris from America)
Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Nnamdi Asomugha - Crown Heights
- Armie Hammer - Call Me by Your Name
- Barry Keoghan - The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Benny Safdie - Good Time
Richard E. Grant - Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- Adam Driver - BlacKkKlansman
- Josh Hamilton - Eighth Grade
- John David Washington - Monsters and Men
- Raúl Castillo - We the Animals
2020s
Willem Dafoe - The Lighthouse (The Lighthouse)