The Independent Spirit Awards are becoming less and less relevant. Not among the 2023 nominees is anything from “Cha Cha Real Smooth” or Sony Pictures Classics’ “Living.”
The Spirit Awards instead, embraced “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a movie the Academy voters don’t really get or understand. It’s perfect at the Spirit Awards, where it will probably clean up. The movie cost $25 million, just $5 million less than the organization’s cut off and $3 million more than the old limit.
The Spirit Awards also showed a lot of enthusiasm for Cate Blanchett and her movie, “Tar,” also at the top end of the budget limitation.
The Spirits also initiated gender-free categories, with 10 each in Lead and Supporting. In Lead , 8 of the 10 are men. In Supporting, the proportions were reversed with most going to men.
The Spirit Awards air on IFC live the day before the Oscars and get smaller ratings than the farm report. They are an indicator of nothing. God bless.
Best Feature
Bones and All
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Our Father, the Devil
Tár
Women Talking
Best Director
Todd Field, Tár
Kogonada, After Yang
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Halina Reijn, Bodies Bodies Bodies
Best First Feature
Aftersun
Emily the Criminal
The Inspection
Murina
Palm Trees and Power Lines
Best Lead Performance
Cate Blanchett, Tár
Dale Dickey, A Love Song
Mia Goth, Pearl
Regina Hall, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Aubrey Plaza, Emily the Criminal
Jeremy Pope, The Inspection
Taylor Russell, Bones and All
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Performance
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Nina Hoss, Tár
Brian d’Arcy James, The Cathedral
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Trevante Rhodes, Bruiser
Theo Rossi, Emily the Criminal
Mark Rylance, Bones and All
Jonathan Tucker, Palm Trees and Power Lines
Gabrielle Union, The Inspection
Breakthrough Performance
Frankie Corio, Aftersun
Gracija Filipović, Murina
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Lily McInerny, Palm Trees and Power Lines
Daniel Zolghadri, Funny Pages
Best Screenplay
Lena Dunham, Catherine Called Birdy
Todd Field, Tár
Kogonada, After Yang
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Best First Screenplay
Joel Kim Booster, Fire Island
Jamie Dack, Audrey Findlay, Story by Jamie Dack, Palm Trees and Power Lines
K.D. Dávila, Emergency
Sarah DeLappe, Story by Kristen Roupenian, Bodies Bodies Bodies
John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal
Best Cinematography
Florian Hoffmeister, Tár
Hélène Louvart, Murina
Gregory Oke, Aftersun
Eliot Rockett, Pearl
Anisia Uzeyman, Neptune Frost
Best Editing
Ricky D’Ambrose, The Cathedral
Dean Fleischer Camp, Nick Paley, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Blair McClendon, Aftersun
Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Monika Willi, Tár
Robert Altman Award
Women Talking
Best Documentary
A House Made of Splinters
All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Midwives
Riotsville, U.S.A.
Best International Film
Corsage
Joyland
Leonor Will Never Die
Return to Seoul
Saint Omer
Someone to Watch Award
Adamma Ebo, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul
Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny
Araceli Lemos, Holy Emy
Truer Than Fiction Award
Isabel Castro, Mija
Reid Davenport, I Didn’t See You There
Rebeca Huntt, Beba
John Cassavetes Award
The African Desperate
A Love Song
The Cathedral
Holy Emy
Something in the Dirt
Producers Award
Liz Cardenas
Tory Lenosky
David Grove Churchill Viste
