Awards season is officially in full swing. Following the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Grammys, and BAFTA Awards, the ceremony took place on Saturday, Feb. 22 in Santa Monica, California. Hosted by comedian and SNL alum Aidy Bryant, and indie cinema’s longest dramatic look, the celebrates creatives who pursue “independence and inclusivity in visual storytelling” and films with budgets under $30 million. This year, “Anora” took home the most trophies, winning Best Film, Best Lead Performance and Best Director.
Premiering in 1984 as the FINDIE Awards (Friends of Independents), this is the award show’s 40th anniversary. Historically held in a tent on the beach, the awards show serves as a fundraising effort to support Film Independent’s to uplift the “global community of artists and audiences who embody diversity, innovation, curiosity and uniqueness of vision.” This year’s Indie Spirit Awards included a brief retrospective and a to Josh Welsh, the president of Film Independent, who on New Year’s Eve after his battle with colon cancer.
Though only “Hollywood’s third- or fourth-biggest night,” as Bryant put it in her , this year’s ceremony had some notable speeches. While most consisted of thank-yous to producers, distributors, casts and crews, a few award winners used theirs to take stances concerning diversity. For example, directors Sean Wang (“Dìdi”) and (“Girls Will Be Girls”) used their speeches to highlight the importance of representation in media. Likewise, when receiving the award for Best Ensemble Cast, Natasha Rothwell (co-showrunner and lead actress, “How to Die Alone”) those who feel unseen and closed with a statement of solidarity and support for those in the transgender community. Following his win for Best New Non-Scripted Series, Justin Simien (writer and director, “Hollywood Black”) for the amplification of Black history to stop the “white nationalist coup taking over the country.”
Perhaps the most notable came from “Anora” director Sean Baker, who used his platform to address the current state of the indie film industry. “Indie film is struggling now more than ever,” he said, with indie filmmakers barely making enough to survive. He expressed his desire for his peers to demand what they're worth, so that indie films can continue to be a sustainable and creatively free enterprise. He dedicated his award to “all the indie film lifers, who are holding on and fighting the good fight.”
There were other notable events besides the more political commentary, such as Jesse Eisenberg using his acceptance to thank Emma Stone—who produced “A Real Pain,” for which he won Best Screenplay—and calling her his “fairy godmother.” Humorous guest presenters, like dynamic duo Natasha Lyonne and Patti Lupone presenting the John Cassavetes Award (which they telepathically decided to rename the Gena Rowlands Award, to honor Cassavetes’ wife, who passed away last August) and Julio Torres (who won Bryant’s Best Dong, Crack and Mind Award) awkwardly presenting the Best Editing Award, spiced up the show.
The ceremony ostensibly celebrates creative professionals: For instance, in order to support the filmmakers affected by the fires, the ceremony included a QR code to donate to a relief fund benefiting those whose livelihoods were impacted.
What gave me pause, however, was a short tribute video which was “made possible in part by OpenAI.” As was covered in a Student Movement article last week, the lack of legal protections from AI for film creatives was recently the source of strikes by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild. Platforming OpenAI at this ceremony, which is supposed to celebrate independent artists, seems (at least to me) insensitive to those who have concerns about job safety and intellectual property protections in an age of increasingly nonhuman “creativity.”
Overall, though, this year’s Independent Spirit Awards honored worthy films, television series and artists and provided humor and commentary on the state of the world and the industry. As Bryant said, “it’s been a great year for film and a bad year for human life.”
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