Independent Spirit Awards: American Fiction and Past Lives dominate

Another big award show took place this weekend (in addition to the SAG Awards), the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which celebrates indie film and TV. One thing about this awards show is that their idea of independent sometimes makes me scratch my head a bit, with HBO’s big-budget The Last of Us nominated a whole bunch in the TV category, along with Netflix’s Beef and several other streaming shows, which I’m not sure one could call independent. For films, there’s a $30 million budget cap. For TV, I’m honestly not sure what the benchmark is because Last of Us was notoriously an expensive show to shoot, costing at least $100 million.

Indeed, The Last of Us won some key awards on the TV side, winning Best Supporting Performance (for Nick Offerman) and Best Breakthrough Performance (for Keivonn Montreal Woodard). Over on the film side, American Fiction and Past Lives were the big winners, winning for performance and film. To note, the Independent Spirit Awards did away with gendered categories, so every acting category only had one winner. 

Check out the full list below:

Movies

Best Feature

All of Us Strangers
American Fiction
May December
Passages
Past Lives
We Grown Now

Best Director

Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
Todd Haynes, May December
William Oldroyd, Eileen
Ira Sachs, Passages
Celine Song, Past Lives

Best First Feature

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Earth Mama
A Thousand and One
Upon Entry

Best Lead Performance

Jessica Chastain, Memory
Greta Lee, Past Lives
Trace Lysette, Monica
Natalie Portman, May December
Judy Reyes, Birth/Rebirth
Franz Rogowski, Passages
Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Teo Yoo, Past Lives

Best Supporting Performance

Erika Alexander, American Fiction
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Noah Galvin, Theater Camp
Anne Hathaway, Eileen
Glenn Howerton, BlackBerry
Marin Ireland, Eileen
Charles Melton, May December
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Catalina Saavedra, Rotting in the Sun
Ben Whishaw, Passages

Best Breakthrough Performance

Marshawn Lynch, Bottoms
Atibon Nazaire, Mountains
Tia Nomore, Earth Mama
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Anaita Wali Zada, Fremont

Best Screenplay

David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien, Birth/Rebirth
Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott, Bottoms
Celine Song, Past Lives

Best First Screenplay

Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik, May December
Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt, Theater Camp
Tomás Gómez Bustillo, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Laurel Parmet, The Starling Girl
Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez, Upon Entry

Best Cinematography

Katelin Arizmendi, Monica
Eigil Bryld, The Holdovers
Jomo Fray, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Pablo Lozano, Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Pat Scola, We Grown Now

Best Editing

Santiago Cendejas, Gabriel Díaz, Sofía Subercaseaux, Rotting in the Sun
Stephanie Filo, We Grown Now
Daniel Garber, How to Blow Up a Pipeline 
Jon Philpot, Theater Camp
Emanuele Tiziani, Upon Entry

Best Documentary

Bye Bye Tiberias
Four Daughters
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Kokomo City
The Mother of All Lies

Best International Film

Anatomy of a Fall
Godland
Mami Wata
Tótem
The Zone of Interest

Robert Altman Award

Showing Up
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

Someone to Watch Award

Joanna Arnow, Director of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Laura Moss, Director of Birth/Rebirth
Monica Sorelle, Director of Mountains

Truer Than Fiction Award

Set Hernandez, Director of unseen
Jesse Short Bull, Laura Tomaselli, Director of Lakota Nation vs. United States
Sierra Urich, Director of Joonam

John Cassavetes Award

The Artifice Girl
Cadejo Blanco
Fremont
Rotting in the Sun 
The Unknown Country

Producers Award

Rachael Fung
Graham Swon
Monique Walton

Television

Best New Scripted Series

Beef
Dreaming Whilst Black
I’m a Virgo
Jury Duty
Slip

Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series

Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court
Dear Mama
Murder in Big Horn 
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
Wrestlers

Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series

Emma Corrin, A Murder at the End of the World
Dominique Fishback, Swarm
Betty Gilpin, Mrs. Davis
Jharrel Jerome, I’m a Virgo
Zoe Lister-Jones, Slip
Bel Powley, A Small Light
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Ramón Rodríguez, Will Trent
Ali Wong, Beef
Steven Yeun, Beef

Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series

Murray Bartlett, The Last of Us
Billie Eilish, Swarm
Jack Farthing, Rain Dogs
Nick Offerman, The Last of Us
Adina Porter, The Changeling
Lewis Pullman, Lessons in Chemistry
Benny Safdie, The Curse
Luke Tennie, Shrinking
Olivia Washington, I’m a Virgo
Jessica Williams, Shrinking

Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Serie

Clark Backo, The Changeling
Aria Mia Loberti, All the Light We Cannot See
Adjani Salmon, Dreaming Whilst Black
Keivonn Montreal Woodard, The Last of Us
Kara Young, I’m a Virgo

Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series

Jury Duty
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

What did you think of the Indie Spirit winners? Let us know in the comments!