Just for the sake of variety, here’s an awards ceremony this year that Oppenheimer didn’t dominate. Of course, it couldn’t for budgetary reasons, but still, this is certainly a slate of Independent Spirit Award winners that won’t match up totally with the Oscars. That alone makes it notable and fun, but the winners themselves also were incredibly high quality today. Past Lives won Best Feature and Best Director for Celine Song, while American Fiction took Best Lead Performance for Jeffrey Wright and Best Screenplay for Cord Jefferson. The rest of the victorious titles and performers are up next.
Here are all of the Independent Spirit Awards results:
FILM CATEGORIES
Best Feature
Past Lives (A24)
Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon
Best Director
Celine Song, Past Lives (A24)
Best Screenplay
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
Best First Feature
A Thousand and One (Focus Features)
Director: A.V. Rockwell
Producers: Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, Brad Weston
Best First Screenplay
Samy Burch, Story by Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik, May December (Netflix)
John Cassavetes Award
(for best feature made under $1,000,000)
Fremont (Music Box Films)
Writer/Director: Babak Jalal
Writer: Carolina Cavalli
Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, Laura Wagner
Best Breakthrough Performance
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers (Focus Features)
Best Supporting Performance
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers (Focus Features)
Best Lead Performance
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction (Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios)
Robert Altman Award
Showing Up (A24)
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Casting Director: Gayle Keller
Ensemble Cast: André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez, Michelle Williams
Best Cinematography
Eigil Bryld, The Holdovers (Focus Features)
Best Editing
Daniel Garber, How to Blow Up a Pipeline (NEON)
Best International Film
Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
Director: Justine Triet
Best Documentary
Four Daughters (Kino Lorber)
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha
Someone to Watch
Monica Sorelle, Mountains
Truer Than Fiction
Set Hernandez, unseen (POV, American Documentary)
Producers Award
Monique Walton
TELEVISION CATEGORIES
Best New Scripted Series
Beef (Netflix)
Creator/Executive Producer: Lee Sung Jin
Executive Producers: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, Alli Reich
Co-Executive Producers: Alice Ju, Carrie Kemper
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
Dear Mama (FX)
Executive Producers: Lasse Järvi, Quincy ‘QD3’ Jones III, Staci Robinson, Nelson George, Charles D. King, Peter Nelson, Adel ‘Future’ Nur, Jamal Joseph, Ted Skillman, Allen Hughes, Steve Berman, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, John Janick, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair
Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series
Nick Offerman, The Last of Us (HBO/Max)
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series
Ali Wong, Beef (Netflix)
Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series
Keivonn Montreal Woodard, The Last of Us (HBO/Max)
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)
Ensemble Cast: Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, James Marsden, Edy Modica, Kerry O’Neill, Rashida Olayiwola, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, Evan Williams



I think without Oppenheimer the others would get more consideration. It was a strong year for good films large and small. The strikes took up a lot of the time last year but still an impressive number of good films. I think there is something for everyone.
American Fiction is getting a lot more love than some expected.
Past Lives proves you don’t have to the standard romantic triangle , people want good stories.
I was happy about Showing Up getting The Robert Altman Award.
Fair point!