Sean Baker’s “Anora” won best film, best director and best actor for Mikey Madison at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday in what could be a preview of next Sunday’s Oscars: The film about a Brooklyn sex worker and her whirlwind affair with a Russian oligarch’s son has emerged in recent weeks as an awards season front-runner.
The Spirit Awards, held in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, is the shaggier, more irreverent sister to the Academy Awards, celebrating the best in independent film and television.
In accepting the directing prize, Baker spoke passionately about the difficulty of making independent films in an industry that is no longer able to fund riskier films. He said indies are in danger of becoming calling card films.
“The system has to change because this is simply unsustainable,” Baker said. “We shouldn’t be barely getting by.”
The audience applauded him enthusiastically.
“Anora” and “I Saw the TV Glow” went into the night as the top nominees with six nominations each.
Host Aidy Bryant called it “Hollywood’s third or fourth biggest night.”
This year had several other possible Oscar winners celebrating. Kieran Culkin, considered an Oscar favorite, won the supporting performance award for “A Real Pain.” His director, co-star and writer Jesse Eisenberg won best screenplay for the film about two cousins embarking on a Holocaust tour in Poland.
Culkin was not there to accept – he also missed his BAFTA win last weekend to tend to a family member – but other Oscar nominees like Mikey Madison, Demi Moore, Sebastian Stan and Colman Domingo were.
Shuchi Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls has won the prestigious John Cassavetes Award, a recognition given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000. The award honours the film’s writer, director, and producer. Produced by Richa Chadha and Claire Chassagne, the film has been widely praised for its intimate and powerful exploration of girlhood.
The documentary prize went to “No Other Land,” the lauded film by a Palestinian-Israeli collective about the destruction of a village in the West Bank which doesn’t have distribution. It’s also a strong Oscar contender in a competitive category. The filmmakers were not in attendance to accept the award.
“Flow,” the wordless animated Latvian cat film, won best international film. At the Oscars, it’s competing in the international film category and animation.
While the Spirit Award winners don’t always sync up with the academy, they can often reflect a growing consensus as in the “Everything Everywhere All At Once” year. The awards limit eligibility to productions with budgets of $30 million or less, meaning more expensive productions like “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two” were not in the running.
Sean Wang accepted best first feature and best first screenplay prizes for “Didi.” He said it was special to be sharing the stage with one of his stars, Joan Chen, who was also nominated for the same award 25 years ago for “Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.”
The Netflix phenomenon “Baby Reindeer” also picked up several prizes, for actors Jessica Gunning and Nava Mau. “We don’t know what is going to happen, but we do know our power,” Mau said. “We are the people and our labor is everything.”
“Shōgun” won best new scripted series and “My Old Ass” star Maisy Stella took the breakthrough performance award.
Scroll below for the complete winner’s list:
Best Feature
“Anora” (WINNER)
“I Saw the TV Glow”
“Nickel Boys”
“Sing Sing”
“The Substance”
Best First Feature
“Dìdi” (WINNER)
“In the Summers”
“Janet Planet”
“The Piano Lesson”
“Problemista”
John Cassavetes Award
“Big Boys”
“Ghostlight”
“Girls Will Be Girls” (Winner)
“Jazzy”
“The People’s Joker”
Best Director
Ali Abbasi, “The Apprentice”
Sean Baker, “Anora” (WINNER)
Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
Alonso Ruizpalacios, “La Cocina”
Jane Schoenbrun, “I Saw the TV Glow”
Best Screenplay
Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, “Heretic”
Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” (WINNER)
Megan Park, “My Old Ass”
Aaron Schimberg, “A Different Man”
Jane Schoenbrun, “I Saw the TV Glow”
Best First Screenplay
Joanna Arnow, “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed”
Annie Baker, “Janet Planet”
India Donaldson, “Good One”
Julio Torres, “Problemista”
Sean Wang, “Dìdi” (WINNER)
Best Lead Performance
Amy Adams, “Nightbitch”
Ryan Destiny, “The Fire Inside”
Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
Keith Kupferer, “Ghostlight”
Mikey Madison, “Anora” (WINNER)
Demi Moore, “The Substance”
Hunter Schafer, “Cuckoo”
Justice Smith, “I Saw the TV Glow”
June Squibb, “Thelma”
Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”
Best Supporting Performance
Yura Borisov, “Anora”
Joan Chen, “Dìdi”
Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” (WINNER)
Danielle Deadwyler, “The Piano Lesson”
Carol Kane, “Between the Temples”
Karren Karagulian, “Anora”
Kani Kusruti, “Girls Will Be Girls”
Brigette Lundy-Paine, “I Saw the TV Glow”
Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, “Sing Sing”
Adam Pearson, “A Different Man”
Best Breakthrough Performance
Isaac Krasner, “Big Boys”
Katy O’Brian, “Love Lies Bleeding”
Mason Alexander Park, “National Anthem”
René Pérez Joglar, “In the Summers”
Maisy Stella, “My Old Ass” (WINNER)
Best Cinematography
Dinh Duy Hung, “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell”
Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys” (WINNER)
Maria von Hausswolff, “Janet Planet”
Juan Pablo Ramírez, “La Cocina”
Rina Yang, “The Fire Inside”
Best Editing
Laura Colwell, Vanara Taing, “Jazzy”
Olivier Bugge Coutté, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, “The Apprentice”
Anne McCabe, “Nightbitch”
Hansjörg Weissbrich, “September 5” (WINNER)
Arielle Zakowski, “Dìdi”
Robert Altman Award
“His Three Daughters” (WINNER)
Best Documentary
“Gaucho Gaucho”
“Hummingbirds”
“No Other Land” (WINNER)
“Patrice: The Movie”
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”
Best International Film
“All We Imagine as Light”
“Black Dog”
“Flow” (WINNER)
“Green Border”
“Hard Truths”
Producers Award presented by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey
The Producers Award, now in its 28th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films.
Alex Coco
Sarah Winshall (WINNER)
Zoë Worth
Someone to Watch Award
The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 31st year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.
Nicholas Colia, Director of “Griffin in Summer”
Sarah Friedland, Director of “Familiar Touch” (WINNER)
Pham Thien An, Director of “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell”
Truer Than Fiction Award
The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 30th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, Directors of “Sugarcane”
Carla Gutiérrez, Director of “Frida”
Rachel Elizabeth Seed, Director of “A Photographic Memory” (WINNER)
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
“Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color”
“Hollywood Black” (WINNER)
“Photographer”
“Ren Faire”
“Social Studies”
Best New Scripted Series
“Baby Reindeer” (WINNER)
“Diarra From Detroit”
“English Teacher”
“Fantasmas”
“Shōgun” (WINNER)
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series
Brian Jordan Alvarez, “English Teacher”
Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer” (WINNER)
Lily Gladstone, “Under the Bridge”
Kathryn Hahn, “Agatha All Along”
Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”
Julianne Moore, “Mary & George”
Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shōgun”
Anna Sawai, “Shōgun”
Andrew Scott, “Ripley”
Julio Torres, “Fantasmas”
Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series
Tadanobu Asano, “Shōgun”
Enrico Colantoni, “English Teacher”
Betty Gilpin, “Three Women”
Chloe Guidry, “Under the Bridge”
Moeka Hoshi, “Shōgun”
Stephanie Koenig, “English Teacher”
Patti LuPone, “Agatha All Along”
Nava Mau, “Baby Reindeer” (WINNER)
Ruth Negga, “Presumed Innocent”
Brian Tee, “Expats”
Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series
Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer” (WINNER)
Diarra Kilpatrick, “Diarra From Detroit”
Joe Locke, “Agatha All Along”
Megan Stott, “Penelope”
Hoa Xuande, “The Sympathizer”
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
“How to Die Alone” (WINNER)
Ensemble Cast: Melissa DuPrey, Jaylee Hamidi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Arkie Kandola, Elle Lorraine, Michelle McLeod, Chris “CP” Powell, Conrad Ricamora, Natasha Rothwell, Jocko Sims
The show also paid tribute to longtime film independent president Josh Welsh, who died earlier this year at age 62. Welsh had colon cancer.
Bryant said in her opening that it had been a “great year for film and a bad year for human life.”
The “Saturday Night Live” alum kicked off the event ribbing some of the nominees, like Emma Stone.
“Emma was a producer on four nominated projects tonight,” Bryant said. “But even more importantly, her hair is short now.”
Stone also featured prominently in Eisenberg’s speech, when he picked up the best screenplay prize for “A Real Pain.” Since they met on the set of “Zombieland” in 2009, he said, she’s been supportive of his writing despite being “the most famous person I know” and produced both of his films.
“I think of her not as my producer, but as a fairy godmother, like I’m riding the coattails for her goodwill,” Eisenberg said.
The camera cut to Stone, teary and moved, in the audience. She and her husband Dave McCary’s production company Fruit Tree also produced Julio Torres’ “Problemista” and “Fantasmas” and Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow.”