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The quiet romance of Celine Song “Past Lives” It won two of the top awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday afternoon, including best feature film and best director. Other big winners were Cord Jefferson’s comic satire American fiction,” with Jeffrey Wright winning as lead actor; and Alexander Payne “ The remains,” which won awards for Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.
The 39th edition of the show took place on Sunday in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, and was broadcast live on YouTube channels and the IMDb and Film Independent X accounts.
“Thank you so much for allowing me to share what it feels like to be human, to love and be loved, and thank you for loving our film,” Song said when accepting the directing award.
His film was among the top nominees at the show, along with “May Dec,” which won only one award (for Samy Burch’s first screenplay) and “American Fiction,” which fared better.
Wright won for playing a frustrated author who achieves great success by writing something he hates in “American Fiction.”
“When you go to these award shows, you get tired of them,” Wright said. “And then you get one, and it changes the vibe a little bit.”
He noted that it was done independently because “no one wanted to finance it.”
The Spirit Awards sit firmly within Hollywood’s biggest awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on March 10. But with a $20 million budget limit for nominees, the program celebrates films that sometimes aren’t announced, or at least nominated, at the awards. bigger shows.
“Welcome to the Film Independent Spirit Awards, also known as the Bisexual Oscars,” said host Aidy Bryant. Bryant called it “the only place in the world where $20 million is like no money.”
Randolph continued her overall season sweep, winning best supporting performance for playing grieving cook Mary Lamb in “The Holdovers.” Less than 24 hours ago, across town, she also picked up the award for best supporting actress at the SAG Awards.
“Independent films are the heart of our industry and are worth fighting for,” Randolph said. However, he wished he could have afforded heated seats while filming in Boston in the winter.
Randolph beat out artists including Anne Hathaway (“Eileen”), Charles Melton (“May Dec”) and Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”) for the award. The Spirit Awards changed to gender-neutral acting awards in 2022. The first awards were presented at the 2023 show.
His co-star, Sessa, later won the breakthrough award.
“I promise it won’t be all downhill from now on,” Sessa said, thanking his high school acting teachers.
Last year, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” swept the Spirit Awards before doing the same at the Oscars. But this year, many of the top Oscar contenders, including “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” would not have qualified.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s film “ four daughters”, nominated for the corresponding Oscar, won the award for best documentary. And that of Justine Triet” Anatomy of a fall, ” also nominated for best film at the Oscars, won best international film over “The Zone of Interest.”
“Los Angeles has a special place in my heart. “It’s the city of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands,” Triet said. “Without discovering them in their films at the age of 20, I wouldn’t have had the desire to make my own films and I wouldn’t be here today.”
The Spirit of Cassavetes actually has its own award, honoring a film made for less than $1 million. That award went this year to “Fremont,” about an Afghan translator who works for a Chinese fortune cookie factory.
The show had some unexpected background noise, coming from a man with a loudspeaker holding a pro-Palestine protest outside the store that lasted for some time.
“We’re on the beach and people are celebrating their freedom of speech,” Bryant said.
Screams outside interrupted Jim Gaffigan’s tribute to “Jury Duty” and many more winners’ speeches. Comedian Jimmy O. Yang, speaking from the stage to present the award for best cinematography, assumed there was someone outside who was heckling.
Later, “Fremont” filmmaker Babak Jalali said he was sure that what was said outside the store was far more important than anything he had to say.
The Spirit Awards also honor television. Netflix’s “Beef” won best new scripted series and Ali Wong won best lead performance.
Nick Offerman won best supporting performance in a new scripted series for his role in “The Last of Us.” And actor Keivonn Montreal Woodard, 11, also won the award for breakthrough performance for a new scripted series of “The Last of Us,” delivering his acceptance speech in American Sign Language.
