I probably should have reminded you guys about this earlier, but the Film Independent Spirit Awards were today and holy fucking shit they continuously prove themselves to be the BEST AWARD SHOW every year!!!
Please enjoy this detailed recap!!
Let's begin with the hosts. Easily one of the best performers on SNL right now (and future Ghostbuster!!), Kate McKinnon, and busy television actor, comedian, and briliant tweeter Kumail Nanjiani cohosted this year. Did all of their jokes perfectly land? No. But, when they landed... oh my god... they were amazing!
This Carol sketch? Absolutely genius.
Kate McKinnon with a mouth full of loose ham making out with Paul Dano, while his girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, cackles in the background??? It was an image I never thought I needed to see... until today!!
Kumail Nanjiani doing his best Jacob Tremblay? Very on point.
The Spirit Awards are never the most flawlessly run program... There are always a few mishaps and unfortunate slips, like how the band played off The Look of Silence's (Best Documentary winner) director Joshua Oppenheimer before he even had a chance to speak... That was a bad mistake, but the fact that this award show even honored The Look of Silence, a devastating doc about the 1960s Indonesian genocide, is amazing! There were a few technical issues. Many of the presenters had problems with the prompters and a few of the graphics were delayed during some award presentations. But, honestly, those were such small little things. Who really cares?
Also, can we just take a moment to recognize the universally incredible films nominated this year?? The five Best Feature nominees were Anomalisa, Beasts of No Nation, Carol, Spotlight, and Tangerine... Those are five genuinely good movies. Most of them are actually incredible! I've recommended almost all of them on this blog in recent weeks! Spotlight went on to win (probably my least favorite of the five...), but pretty much all of the other nominees went home with at least one win, and that is really exciting!!
Spotlight's Tom McCarthy also won Best Director, which was the win that made the least amount of sense to me. It was a well constructed film, but I prefer when directors with more of an innovative voice are rewarded.
BUT NOW... no more complaining because I just want to highlight all of the other amazing (and, in one case, historic) honorees of the night!
Abraham Attah and Idris Elba won Best Male Lead and Best Supporting Male for their work in Beasts of No Nation! Easily two of the best performances of the year, neither will be honored at the Oscars because neither of them were nominated for no legitamate or understandable reason.
Marielle Heller won Best First Feature for her brilliant coming-of-age dramedy The Diary of a Teenage Girl! She said it took her eight years to make this film, and thank god she persevered because not only is the film great, but she officially cemented herself as one of the best new talents working in the industry today! AND WE NEED TO THANK HER FOR INTRODUCING THE WORLD TO BEL POWLEY!!
I was also super pumped for Ed Lachman, who won Best Cinematography for Carol. He has virtually no shot at the Oscars, but he's mostly responsible for creating the strikingly beautiful look of one of the best films in a long time. Watching the teary-eyed Cate Blanchett smile at Lachman as he spoke was almost like looking in a mirror.
And finally, major major major congratulation to Mya Taylor, who won Best Supporting Female for her role in Tangerine, becoming the first trans actress to ever win a major film award! In her speech, she reminded the audience: "There is transgender talent. There's very beautiful transgender talent. So, you better get out there and put it in your next movie." This was a historic moment, one that will certainly not happen during tomorrow's #OscarsSoWhite ceremony (especially considering the first trans person ever nominated for an Oscar wasn't even asked to perform her nominated song this year). This was an extremely important moment indeed! We can only hope that the industry continues to progress so that more opportunity and a brighter spotlight can be provided for people like Mya Taylor: people with immense talent and a powerful screen presence who have been failed by the industry's exclusiveness and close-mindedness.
Brie Larson won Best Female Lead for Room like she has at literally every other award show that has ever existed. She'll win at the Oscars tomorrow too, and she mentioned the brilliant Short Term 12 in her acceptance speech, which made me happy :)
Other winners include Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer for Best Screenplay (Spotlight), Emma Donoghue for Best First Screenplay (Room), Son of Saul for Best International Film, Tom McArdle for Best Editing (Spotlight), and Trey Edward Shults, who won the annual John Cassavetes Award (given to a film with a budget under $500,000) for Krisha, which opens in NYC on March 18th. Spotlight also took home the Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble.
So, there you have it. The 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards are over. I'm already expecting to be majorly disappointed by the Oscars tomorrow... though I most certainly will be watching and live-blogging them with Foodham's own Alyssa Opdyke.
I hope Chris Rock burns the Dolby Theatre to the ground!!!!*
*This blogger does not actually wish for the destruction or damage of any kind to the Dolby Theatre nor for any of the honorees and guests at this year's Oscar ceremony to be harmed in any way... except by maybe the sting of a well-written joke. Just in case that wasn't already clear... okay bye.
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