The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards were held on Feb. 25 in Santa Monica and celebrated another fantastic year for indie cinema and television. The Film Independent Spirit Awards is one of the last awards shows leading up to the Oscars and these outcomes make us wonder how the Academy Awards will play out this year. “Past Lives” and “The Holdovers” were the films with the most awards received while Netflix’s “Beef” was the most awarded scripted series of the night.
“Past Lives” won Best Feature and Celine Song took home the Best Director award. Song’s directorial debut is also up for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars this year.
“American Fiction” got Jeffery Wright the award for Best Lead Performance and writer-director Cord Jefferson was awarded Best Screenplay for his work on the film.
While “The Holdovers” was not nominated for Best Feature, it did leave the ceremony with the most trophies of the night. Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Performance while her co-star Dominic Sessa took home Best Breakthrough Performance. Their third award came from Eigil Bryld winning Best Cinematography for his work in the film.
Justine Triet’s courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall” was awarded with Best International Film.
In television, “Beef” was named Best New Scripted Series while their lead Ali Wong was awarded Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series.
“The Last of Us” also took home two awards– Nick Offerman winning Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series and Keivonn Montreal Woodward winning Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series.
During the show, a group of protesters could be heard outside the venue chanting “free Palestine” and “ceasefire now” through a megaphone. These chants were heard earlier that evening on the red carpet and throughout the night, even during some acceptance speeches.
Best Documentary winner Kaouther Ben Hania for “Four Daughters” later spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the protest outside, “People are dying every day, every day, and we are watching it on our phones. So you have a guy here reminding us about reality. I feel sad. I won an award, and there is a hero here.”
While Babik Jalali, director of “Fremont,” accepted the John Cassavetes Award he stated in his acceptance speech, “There are people speaking outside, and whatever they’re saying, I think it’s far more important than what I’m about to say. I’m so inspired by what they’re saying outside, I can’t think of what I’m about to say.”
This year’s Spirit Awards featured several Oscar contenders among their presenters and nominees including Greta Lee, Colman Domingo, Sterling K. Brown, and Spirit Award honorary chair Lily Gladstone.
View the full list of winners HERE
