by Nick Taylor
Last night, the 40th Indie Spirit Awards came and went. The SAG Awards could begin at any moment, meaning we'll have a better sense on whether certain wins here might reverberate into the Oscars next week. Even taking the Oscar-adjacency of several winners into consideration, this is a solid pack of winners, with a couple pleasant surprises along with some disappointing rubber-stamping. Here's the list of winners from this year's Indie Spirit Awards, with some delightful commentary from yours truly. If you want to go back and watch the show, Film Independent has uploaded the ceremony in its entirety on YouTube. Click here to watch it!...
FILM AWARDS
Best Feature: Anora
Best Director: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Lead Performance: Mikey Madison, Anora
Should I be surprised Anora copped these prizes, given its rising stock with other awards groups? Winning Best Feature and Best Director makes complete sense to me, even if I fully expected Brady Corbet would take the latter prize. Sean Baker shouting out a baker's dozen of fellow indie directors who've been hoofing it for years alongside him is a very endearing move. I’m less excited about Mikey Madison winning over Demi Moore and Colman Domingo, who absolutely mop the floor with her. I’m manifesting these two will win their respective categories at SAG tonight, along with receiving the inaugural Oscar for Red Carpet Serves.
Best Supporting Performance: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Best Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Kieran Culkin is a good actor, and seems like a great dude. He is also a leading actor in A Real Pain!!! I was fully prepared to be salty about him cakewalking to the Oscar, but I’m disappointed (and ever so slightly surprised) he won here over a litany of superior competition who actually belong in this category. The hoes don’t care about Joan Chen and Adam Pearson anymore? Pathetic. Between A Real Pain’s two wins, I’m more excited for Jesse Eisenberg, who gets extra points for giving such a touching tribute to Emma Stone as a friend, cheerleader, fairy godmother, and uniquely fearlessness producer to close out his speech. Stone's just as adventurous with her collaborators behind the camera as she is in front of it, and though I’d have loved to see her other ventures from this year (Problemista and I Saw the TV Glow) take home a prize tonight, I’m even happier knowingly Stone will keep giving such weird, personal art the room it needs to flourish.
Breakthrough Performance: Maisy Stella, My Old Ass
Hands down the winner from this ceremony I understand the least. She’s not especially inspired in her film and the worst of the five nominated performances. Why such love on the indie circuit all season? Who decided it was okay not to nominate Isaac Wang, who would have won this in a heartbeat, or my beloved Lily Collias from Good One?
Best First Feature: Dìdi
Best First Screenplay: Sean Wang, Dìdi
Literally any of the nominees could have won these prizes and I would’ve been ecstatic. Even if I reflexively wish the debut prizes didn’t go to the same film, Dìdi’s unsentimental, increasingly lacerating recollection of its director’s teenaged self makes it a great winner in either category. Also, this cast would have been such a fantastic pick for the Robert Altman Award. Look at how radiant Joan Chen is. Look at how tall Izaac Wang is now! And such a dapper outfit.
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
As a voting member of the Indie Spirits, this was literally the one match between my ballot for them and the actual winner. Janet Planet and especially Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell would have been marvelous picks, but it’s so rewarding to see Fray get his flowers. The Academy not nominating his work this year is such a stupidly unforced error.
Best Editing: Hansjörg Weißbrich, September 5
I mean, sure. September 5 captures the energy of in-the-moment highwire decision making among roughly a dozen or more folks whose faces and ideas we need to keep track of, but in my eyes it's also the least substantial of these five nominees as a film and a feat of editing. Justice for Nightbitch!
John Cassavetes Award: Girls Will Be Girls
Best Documentary Film: No Other Land
Best International Film: Flow
Pleasantly surprised to see Flow take this, given the chokehold All We Imagine as Light has had on this category all year. It doesn’t hurt that this intrepid kitty cat is the only crossover with Oscar’s own lineup, but it’s also a fantastic audiovisual achievement in its own right. Any film could have won International Film or the Cassavetes Award and I would have thought justice was served. The People’s Joker obviously should have won its category, but Girls Will Be Girls is smart and insightful, with a performance from Kani Kusruti even more luminous than she is in Kapadia’s film. Meanwhile, as appealing as the other choices were in Best Documentary, I would’ve been stunned if No Other Land lost. Do we think it’s a safe bet for the Oscar?
Robert Altman Award: His Three Daughters
Producers Award: Sarah Winshall
Someone to Watch Award: Sarah Friedland, Familiar Touch
Truer Than Fiction: Rachel Elizabeth Seed, A Photographic Memory
TV AWARDS
Best New Scripted Series: ShÅgun
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series: Hollywood Black
Best Ensemble in a New Scripted Series: How to Die Alone
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series: Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer
Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series: Nava Mau, Baby Reindeer
Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series: Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer
I am not a TV girl, so I have nothing to say about these prizes. But I'm sure you have something to say, dear reader, about this entire production. What did you think of Ms. Bryant's hosting? Of the evening's winners, regardless of whether independent spirit will translate to Oscar gold? Can you explain the appeal of My Old Ass? Will I ever stop asking questions? Yes. Here's Emma Stone. Goodnight.
