Awards Season 2021: Independent Spirit Awards Winners

Last night (Thursday 22nd April), the 36th Film Independent Spirit Awards took place, in a ceremony hosted by Melissa Villaseñor (Saturday Night Live, Toy Story 4) for the first time. 

As I'm sure you all know by now, they recognise films made wholly or partly outside the traditional studio system. They're also the first major awards to be announced in any given awards season (as was the case this awards season back in January), and one of the last to be awarded.   

Traditionally, these awards take place on the Saturday afternoon before the Oscars, in a marquee on the Santa Monica beach. Obviously not an option in these times. So, the decision was made to bring the Spirits forward to a prime-time event a few days earlier and make it a virtual live show instead. 

Here is a full list of winners.

Best Feature: Nomadland

Best Female Lead: Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)

Best Male Lead: Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal)

Best Supporting Female: Youn Yuh-Jung (Minari)

Best Supporting Male: Paul Raci (Sound Of Metal)

Best Director: Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

Best Screenplay: Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

Best First Screenplay: Andy Siara (Palm Springs)

Best Cinematography: Nomadland

Best Editing: Nomadland

Best First Feature: Sound Of Metal

Best International Film: Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Documentary: Crip Camp

John Cassavetes Award: Residue

Robert Altman Award: One Night In Miami

The John Cassavetes Award is given to the creative team of a film budgeted at less than $500,000, whilst the Robert Altman Award is presented to the ensemble cast of the movie, its director, and its casting director(s). 

Nomadland was the big winner of the night with four awards, with Sound Of Metal winning three (incidentally, winning all three categories it was nominated in), and Promising Young Woman got two. 

Despite leading the nominations with seven nods, there was nothing for Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom also didn't convert any of its five nominations to a win, with Riz Ahmed seen as a surprise winner for Best Actor. 

Congratulations to all winners!

There'll be more awards stuff this coming weekend, with the Razzies being announced on Saturday (24th April) and the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday (25th April). 

 

Awards Season 2021: Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) Winners

Just a quick post today, to update y'all on some awards nonsense. Yesterday (Sunday 21st February), the Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) were given out. 

The film winners were:

Original Screenplay: Promising Young Woman 

Adapted Screenplay: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Documentary Screenplay: The Dissident

Very happy to see Emerald Fennell's win here. I think a lot of people were surprised that Aaron Sorkin didn't win the Original Screenplay category for The Trial Of The Chicago 7. Sorkin has previously won a screenwriting Oscar (for his adapted screenplay of The Social Network), and also been nominated three further times. I would love to see Fennell take the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Whether it'll happen is another matter. 

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm's win has surprised a few people, who considered it a bit of a dark horse in a category that also featured Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, One Night In Miami, News Of The World and The White Tiger (all of which were based on plays or novels, rather than characters). Also, given the very improvised nature of the film, one could argue that the script was essentially non-existent prior to shooting (although Sacha Baron Cohen and the writers will have come up with the broad strokes of scenes etc.). Will it repeat this at the Oscars? I'd say it's unlikely given that both Nomadland and The Father have nods for the Academy Awards. But never say never... 

For anyone interested, The Dissident (which got a BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary, but didn't get one at the Oscars) is a documentary about the murder of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which is directed by Bryan Fogel and written by Fogel and Mark Monroe. 

Congratulations to all winners!

Next up: Producers Guild Awards (PGA) are given out on Wednesday (24th March). I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that Nomadland will win the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. But we shall see...

Awards Season 2021: Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) Nominations

 

As promised, here's a quick update on today's DGA Awards nominations:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film

Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)

Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

David Fincher (Mank)

Aaron Sorkin (The Trial Of The Chicago 7)

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film

Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old Version)

Fernando Frías de la Parra (I'm No Longer Here)

Regina King (One Night In Miami...)

Darius Marder (Sound Of Metal)

Florian Zeller (The Father)

The winners will be announced at the 73rd Annual DGA Awards on Saturday 10th April 2021.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Friday (12th March) is our next date for awards stuff, with the Producers Guild Awards naming their nominees.