A Bunch Of Non-Oscar Nominated Movies Won Big At The Independent Spirit Awards

February 9, 2020 / Posted by:

Despite not being nominated for anything at the Oscars, The Farewell took home Best Picture at last night’s Film Independent Spirit Awards, a ceremony held in Santa Monica, CA and is known for giving few fucks when it comes to the speeches, the red carpet, the outfits and…the Oscars. If award shows were a family getting together at Thanksgiving, the Spirit Awards would be the cool, arty cousin who smokes unfiltered Parliaments in the driveway while everybody else is inside drinking champagne and talking about Steven Spielberg.

At the very least, it was nice to sit through a televised evening of self-congratulation without having to see Brad Pitt’s shiny forehead or Quentin Tarantino being…Quentin Tarantino.

Adam Sandler won Best Actor (not a typo) for Uncut Gems, and in his speech, he put on his Billy Madison voice and thanked his fellow nominees by stating:

“you will now and forever be known as ‘the guys who lost to fucking Adam Sandler’”

Renee Zellweger won her 30593th Best Actress award this year for playing Liza Minnelli’s mother in Judy. I’m assuming, after this weekend, Liza will finally come around and send Renee a congratulatory fruit basket (as soon as she finds out which fruits Renee is allergic to).

Eternally creepy (yet, I still would) Willem Defoe won Best Supporting Actor for The Lighthouse, while the adorable grandma, Zhao Shuzhen, from The Farewell, won Best Supporting Actress (fellow nominee JLo seemed totally happy for her, BTW). The film’s director, Lulu Wang, accepted on Zhao’s behalf and basically said that Zhao doesn’t care about Hollywood and would rather work in China where she makes a hell of a lot more money than she ever could in Hollywood. Who doesn’t love a badass memaw making money moves?

As well as the awards, the night had a few WTFs: the Gay Man’s Chorus came out and sang to Laura Dern about all of Laura Dern’s iconic LGBTQ roles (mostly a bitchy, rich white woman with a shopping and/or drinking problem), while host Aubrey Plaza did a spot-on impression of Judy Garland (award shows, in general, are usually pretty gay, but THIS show made Elton John’s wig room look like a Home Depot).

And, most notably, Jon Glaser, who plays JLo’s skeezy boss in Hustlers, kept coming onto the stage to present awards while eating a sandwich. And if you haven’t seen Hustlers, you probably got confused and just assumed that the whole evening was catered by Subway––which, for a room full of independent filmmakers, probably makes sense.

Below is the full list of winners, and below that are some of the looks from the show;

BEST FEATURE
A Hidden Life
Clemency
The Farewell
Marriage Story
Uncut Gems

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Booksmart
The Climb 
Diane
The Last Black Man in San Francisco 
The Mustang 
See You Yesterday 

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Burning Cane
Colewell
Give Me Liberty
Premature
Wild Nights With Emily

BEST DIRECTOR
Alma Har’el, Honey Boy
Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers
Julius Onah, Luce
Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse
Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems

BEST SCREENPLAY
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Jason Begue, Shawn Snyder, To Dust
Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie, Uncut Gems
Chinonye Chukwu, Clemency
Tarell Alvin McCraney, High Flying Bird

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Fredrica Bailey & Stefon Bristol, See You Yesterday
Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen, Driveways
Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy, Blow the Man Down
Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe, Greener Grass
James Montague & Craig W. Sanger, The Vast of Night

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Todd Banhazl, Hustlers
Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse
Natasha Braier, Honey Boy
Chananun Chotrungroj, The Third Wife
Pawel Pogorzelski, Midsommar

BEST EDITING
Julie Béziau, The Third Wife
Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems
Tyler L. Cook, Sword of Trust
Louise Ford, The Lighthouse
Kirill Mikhanovsky, Give Me Liberty

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Karen Allen, Colewell
Hong Chau, Driveways
Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell
Mary Kay Place, Diane
Alfre Woodard, Clemency
Renée Zellweger, Judy 

BEST MALE LEAD
Chris Galust, Give Me Liberty
Kelvin Harrison Jr., Luce
Robert Pattinson, The Lighthouse
Matthias Schoenaerts, The Mustang
Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers
Taylor Russell, Waves
Lauren “LoLo” Spencer, Give Me Liberty
Octavia Spencer, Luce
Zhao Shuzhen, The Farewell

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse
Noah Jupe, Honey Boy
Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy
Jonathan Majors, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Wendell Pierce, Burning Cane 

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Marriage Story

BEST DOCUMENTARY
American Factory
Apollo 11 
For Sama 

Honeyland 
Island of the Hungry Ghosts 

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Invisible Life (Brazil) 
Les Misérables 
(France)
Parasite (South Korea) 
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France)
Retablo (Peru)
The Souvenir (United Kingdom)  

BONNIE AWARD
Marielle Heller
Kelly Reichardt
Lulu Wang

PRODUCERS AWARD
Mollye Asher
Krista Parris
Ryan Zacarias

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Rashaad Ernesto Green, Premature
Ash Mayfair, The Third Wife
Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Khalik Allah, Black Mother
Davy Rothbart, 17 Blocks
Nadia Shihab, Jaddoland
Erick Stoll & Chase Whiteside, América

Pics: A24, Wenn.com

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