SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Celine Song's quiet romance “Past Lives'' won two major awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday afternoon, including Best Feature and Best Director. The other big winner was Cord Jefferson's comedic satire “American Fiction,” which won Best Actor for Jeffrey Wright. Alexander Payne's “The Holdovers” won the award for Da Vin Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.
The 39th show was held Sunday at a beachside tent in Santa Monica, Calif., and was livestreamed on IMDb and Film Independent's YouTube channel and X account.
Upon receiving the Best Director award, director Son said, “Thank you so much for letting me share what it feels like to be human, to love, and to be loved. And thank you for loving our film.'' Ta.
Her film came in at the top of the show, along with May December, which won only one award (for Sammy Birch's first screenplay), and American Fiction, which fared better. It was one of the nominated works.
Wright won the award for his role in “American Fiction'' as a failed writer who achieves great success by writing about things he hates.
“When you go to these awards shows, you get tired of it, and then when you win an award, the atmosphere changes a little bit,” Wright said.
He noted that it was created independently because “nobody wanted to fund it.”
The Spirit Awards are firmly embedded in Hollywood's big awards season, which culminates with the Oscars ceremony on March 10th. But the budget cap for nominated films is $20 million, and the show occasionally celebrates films that don't get heralded at the Academy Awards, or at least get fewer nominations. Bigger show.
“Welcome to the Film Independent Spirit Awards, also known as the Oscars of bisexuality,” host Aidy Bryant said. Bryant called it “the only place in the world where $20 million isn't money.”
Randolph continued her season-long sweep, winning Best Supporting Role for her role as grieving cook Mary Lamb in The Holdovers. Just 24 hours earlier, across the city from her, she won Best Supporting Actress at her SAG Awards.
“Independent films are the heart of our industry and are worth fighting for,” Randolph said. But she wished she could have had heated seats during her winter shoot in Boston.
Randolph beat out Anne Hathaway (“Eileen”), Charles Melton (“May December”) and Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”) for the award. The Spirit Awards switched to a gender-neutral acting award in 2022 for him. The first award was presented at his 2023 show.
Her co-star, Sessa, later won the Breakthrough Award.
“I promise it's not all downhill from here,” Sessa said, thanking her high school acting teacher.
Last year, “Everything Everywhere All at Once'' swept the Spirit Awards, followed by a similar showing at the Oscars. But this year, many Oscar nominees failed to qualify, including “Oppenheimer,'' “Barbie'' and “Killers of the Flower Moon.''
The corresponding Oscar-nominated film “Four Daughters,'' directed by Kauser Ben Hania, won the Best Documentary Award. Justine Triet's Anatomy of Fall, which was also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, won Best International Feature Film, beating out The Zone of Interest.
“Los Angeles has a special place in my heart. This is the city of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands,” Torie said. “If I hadn't discovered their films when I was 20, I wouldn't have wanted to make my own films and I wouldn't be here today.”
In fact, the Cassavetes spirit has its own award recognizing films made for less than $1 million. This year, that award went to “Fremont,” about an Afghan translator working in a fortune cookie factory in China.
At the show, a lone man with a bullhorn holding a pro-Palestinian protest outside the tent created unexpected ambient noise that lasted for a while.
“We're on the beach and people are celebrating free speech,” Bryant said.
Screams outside interrupted Jim Gaffigan's tribute to “Jury Duty” and many other honoree speeches. Comedian Jimmy O. Yang, speaking from the stage at the Best Cinematography award ceremony, thought it was an outside heckler.
Afterward, “Fremont” director Babak Jalali said he believed what was being said outside the tent was far more important than what he had to say.
The Spirit Awards also pay homage to television. Netflix's “Beef” won Best New Written Series and Ali Wong won Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Nick Offerman won Best Supporting Actor in a New Series for his work on The Last of Us. Eleven-year-old actor Kayvon Montreal Woodard also won the Breakthrough Performance Award for a new scripted series for “The Last of Us,” giving his acceptance speech in American Sign Language.