The 21st Independent Spirit Awards, honoring the best in independent filmmaking for 2005, were announced on March 4, 2006. It was hosted by Sarah Silverman. Winners and nominees {| class="wikitable" !Best Feature !Best Director |- |Brokeback Mountain Capote Good Night, and Good Luck. The Squid and the Whale The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada |Ang Lee – Brokeback Mountain Gregg Araki – Mysterious Skin Noah Baumbach – The Squid and the Whale George Clooney – Good Night, and Good Luck. Rodrigo García – Nine Lives |- !Best Male Lead !Best Female Lead |- |Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote Jeff Daniels – The Squid and the Whale Terrence Howard – Hustle & Flow Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain David Strathairn – Good Night, and Good Luck. |Felicity Huffman – Transamerica Dina Korzun – Forty Shades of Blue Laura Linney – The Squid and the Whale S. Epatha Merkerson – Lackawanna Blues Cyndi Williams – Room |- !Best Supporting Male !Best Supporting Female |- |Matt Dillon – Crash Firdous Bamji – The War Within Jesse Eisenberg – The Squid and the Whale Barry Pepper – The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Jeffrey Wright – Broken Flowers |Amy Adams – Junebug Maggie Gyllenhaal – Happy Endings Allison Janney – Our Very Own Michelle Williams – Brokeback Mountain Robin Wright Penn – Nine Lives |- !Best Screenplay !Best First Screenplay |- |Capote – Dan FuttermanNine Lives – Rodrigo García The Squid and the Whale – Noah Baumbach The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Guillermo Arriaga The War Within – Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo and Tom Glynn |Transamerica – Duncan TuckerThe Beautiful Country – Sabina Murray Fixing Frank – Ken Hanes Junebug – Angus MacLachlan Me and You and Everyone We Know – Miranda July |- !Best First Feature !Best Documentary |- |Crash Lackawanna Blues Me and You and Everyone We Know Thumbsucker Transamerica |Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Grizzly Man Romántico La Sierra Sir! No Sir! |- !Best Cinematography !Best Foreign Film |- |Good Night, and Good Luck. – Robert ElswitCapote – Adam Kimmel Keane – John Foster Last Days – Harris Savides The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Chris Menges |Paradise Now • Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/FranceThe Death of Mr. Lazarescu • Romania Duck Season • Germany/Turkey Head-On • France Tony Takitani • Japan |} Films with multiple nominations and awards Special awards John Cassavetes AwardConventioneers Brick Jellysmoke The Puffy Chair Room