On the afternoon of February 22, local time, the results of the 40th Independent Spirit Awards were announced. The recently invincible "Anora" won another victory, winning the three awards of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, becoming the undisputed biggest winner.
Among the three awards won by "Anora", the Best Actor Award for Mickey Madison is particularly worth mentioning. In 2023, the Independent Spirit Awards will be reformed. The three acting awards, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Most Breakthrough Performance, will no longer be classified by gender, but will be competed by all genders on the same stage.
Madison defeated Colman Domingo from "Prison Theater", Demi Moore from "Some Kind of Material", Sebastian Stan from "The Apprentice". Of course, her only real competitor for the Oscar is Demi Moore. After winning the British Academy Film Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards, Mickey Madison, who was not favored at first, has a great momentum of catching up. Next, it will depend on who will win the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night.
Mickey Madison. Visual China Image
It is also worth mentioning that "Brother", the first feature film by Chinese director Wang Xiangsheng, won two awards, the Best First Film and the Best First Screenplay. Chen Chong, who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Award for this film, eventually lost to Kieran Culkin of "True Pain", who has been identified as the only candidate for this year's Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
"Dogs" lost the best international film competition to the Latvian film "Life of Cats", which is also a favorite to win the Oscar. In addition, "Home" won the best documentary feature. The John Cassavetes Award, which encourages films with a maximum cost of $1 million, was won by the Indian film "Girls Will Be Girls".
In terms of TV series, "Shogun" won the most important Best New Drama Award, and "Reindeer Baby" won three acting awards.
The Independent Spirit Awards are hosted by the non-profit organization Independent Film Association. In the past, they were scheduled to be awarded the day before the Oscars, so they were known as the "last weathervane." But in fact, the Independent Spirit Awards are intended to encourage low-cost works that do not rely on Hollywood studios, so the overlap between the two was not high in the early years. With the increasing improvement of the level of independent films in recent years, the Oscars have tilted towards art films, and the overlap between the two awards has become increasingly high.
[Independent Spirit Awards Film Category Winners List]
Best Film: Anora
Best first work: "Brother"
John Cassavetes Award: Girls Will Be Girls
Best Director: Sean Baker, "Anora"
Best Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg, "True Pain"
Best First Screenplay: Wang Xiangsheng's "Brother"
Best Lead Actor: Mickey Madison, Anora
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, "True Misery"
Best Breakthrough Performance: Macy Stella, "My Old Friend"
Best Cinematography: Jomo Frey, "Nickelback Boys"
Best Film Editing: Hansjörg Webrich, "September 5th"
Robert Altman Film Award: "His Three Daughters"
Best documentary feature: "My Only Home"
Best International Film: "Life of Cats"
Producer Award: Sarah Winshall, "Screen Glows"
Newcomer to Watch: Sarah Friedland, "A Familiar Touch"
Truer Than Fiction Award: Rachel Elizabeth Schade, "Photographic Memory"
