The Independent Spirit awards was organized in Los Angeles on 25th February, and despite being held just a day before the Oscars, it was an entertaining and memorable event. The award show created a lot of buzz in the media because of the interesting choices made during the nominations.
It pitted big Hollywood blockbusters and low-budget independent films against each other, thereby allowing the best film in each category to shine despite its studio reputation or backing. Needless to say, the results were quite intriguing as well.
And the winner is -
The big winner of the night was Barry Jenkins’ masterpiece – “Moonlight”. The film won six awards during the event - Best feature, director, screenplay, cinematography, and editing, as well as the prestigious Robert Altman award.
Other top honors
Casey Affleck managed to bag the Best Male Lead award for his turn as Lee Chandler in “Manchester by the sea”, while Isabelle Huppert won Best Female Lead for her performance in Elle. Ben Foster has already received high praise for his performance in “Hell or high water”, and he was rightfully awarded the Best Supporting Male statue during the event. Even Molly Shannon’s underrated performance in “Other people” rightfully earned her the Best Supporting Female award.
The other big winner of the night was the period horror film – “The Witch”. It has been lauded as one of the most original horror films in recent history, single-handedly flipping audience expectations from the genre. It was rightfully awarded with the Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay award because of these compelling reasons.
The re-emergence of the O.J Simpson story in modern pop-culture was complete, when “O.J: Made in America” received the Best Documentary Feature award during the event. The closely contested Best International film award went to “Toni Erdmann”, the German comedy/drama directed by Maren Ade.
Although these results are not a reflection of things to come during the Oscar awards tonight, some fans may be happy that under-rated films like “Moonlight” and “The Witch” that may not make it as big in the big leagues received their due recognition.
