Sunday, February 15, 2026

“Train Dreams,” Rose Byrne Win Indie Spirit Awards, But Only 32,000 People Watched Hobbled Show on YouTube

Share

The Indie Spirit Awards — once a force — took place today in earnest.

The stealth event took place at the Hollywood Palladium. “Train Dreams” and its director, Clint Bentley, won the top awards. A Netflix movie, “Train Dreams” — a great film — really didn’t even play in theaters.

Rose Byrne won Best Performance for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” The awards are stupidly gender free, so there was no Best Actor.

In golden days, the Spirit Awards took place the day before the Oscars in a huge circus tent at the Santa Monica Pier. It was an event.

Now it’s just a schleppy kind of rat fuck. There’s no occasion to it, and the attendees dress like they’re going to Ralph’s for a quart of ice cream.

Why wasn’t it on the pier for the first time in three decades? THe excuse has something to with the 2028 Olympics, but host Ego Nwodim oked that they missed the deadline to get permission for the tent.

About 32,000 views on YouTube, not much, but the show wasn’t promoted. I actually forgot about it.

LOL. The new director of Film Independent is in over her head. As George Harrison once sang, All things must pass.

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

Read more

In Other News