Film Independent presented the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony IN PERSON on the beach in Santa Monica on Sunday and it was a grand ol’ time with some incredible wins.
Hosted by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, the ceremony was a big night for the groundbreaking, history-making FX indigenous-fronted series Reservation Dogs, winning Best New Scripted series and Best Ensemble while Passing‘s Ruth Negga received some love in an awards season that shut out the Rebecca Hall-directed period drama. The film also won Best Cinematography for Edu Grau.
Janicza Bravo‘sZola which won Best Female Lead for Taylour Paige and the film’s editor Joi McMillon scored a trophy for Best Editing.
Thuso Mbedu was shocked when she was announced as a winner for her role in Barry Jenkins‘s The Underground Railroad and Emma Seligman‘s Shiva Baby won the John Cassavetes Award.
Other big winners for the night included Troy Kotsur for CODA, who is very well on his way to win the Oscar as well as Lee Jung-jae for Squid Game. Roshan Sethi‘s 7 Days starring Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan took home the award for Best First Feature and Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s continues to impress with Drive My Car, which won Best International Film.
Simon Rex seems to be staging a huge comeback with his role in Red Rocket, which he won Best Actor on the feature side while Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Lost Daughter swept Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Director.
The 14th annual Robert Altman Award, which was created in 2008 in honor of legendary film director Robert Altman, who was known for creating extraordinary ensemble casts, was awarded to Fran Kranz‘s Mass.
Previously announced winners of the Emerging Filmmaker Awards Grants are Alex Camilleri (Luzzu) who received the Someone to Watch Award; Lizzie Shapiro who received the Producers Award; and Jessica Beshir (Faya Dayi) who received the Truer Than Fiction Award.
Read the complete list of winners and watch their acceptance speeches below.
FILM CATEGORIES
Best Feature
The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Producers: Charles Dorfman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler
Best Director
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Best Screenplay
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Best First Feature
7 Days (Cinedigm)
Director: Roshan Sethi
Producers: Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn
Best First Screenplay
Michael Sarnoski, Story by Vanessa Block and Michael Sarnoski, Pig (NEON)
John Cassavetes Award
(for best feature made under $500,000)
Shiva Baby (Utopia)
Writer/Director/Producer: Emma Seligman
Producers: Kieran Altmann, Katie Schiller, Lizzie Shapiro
Best Supporting Female
Ruth Negga, Passing (Netflix)
Best Supporting Male
Troy Kotsur, CODA (Apple+)
Best Female Lead
Taylour Paige, Zola (A24)
Best Male Lead
Simon Rex, Red Rocket (A24)
Robert Altman Award
Mass (Bleecker Street)
Director: Fran Kranz
Casting Directors: Henry Russell Bergstein, Allison Estrin
Ensemble Cast: Kagen Albright, Reed Birney, Michelle N. Carter, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Breeda Wool
Best Cinematography
Edu Grau, Passing (Netflix)
Best Editing
Joi McMillon, Zola (A24)
Best International Film
Drive My Car (Sideshow in association with Janus Films)
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Best Documentary
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures, Onyx Collective, Hulu)
Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Producers: David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, Joseph Patel
TELEVISION CATEGORIES
Best New Scripted Series
Reservation Dogs (FX)
Creators/Executive Producers: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi
Executive Producer: Garrett Basch
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
Black and Missing (HBO/HBO Max)
Series By/Executive Producers: Soledad O’Brien, Geeta Gandbhir
Executive Producers: Jo Honig, Patrick Conway, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez
Best Female Performance in a New Scripted Series
Thuso Mbedu, The Underground Railroad (Prime Video)
Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series
Lee Jung-jae, Squid Game (Netflix)
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
Reservation Dogs (FX)
Ensemble Cast: Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, FunnyBone
