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Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Guests at the 2025 Indie Spirit Awards Forecast a ‘Messy' Future for Independent Film
Arriving on a busy blue carpet for a gray day at the beach, guests at the 2025 Indie Spirit Awards agreed: It's time to Make the Movies Messy Again. Inside the ceremony tent, host Aidy Bryant put it perfectly when she said, 'It's been a great year for film and a bad year for human life.' Hundreds of the most important decision-makers and visionary artists championing creative independence today gathered in Santa Monica, California on Saturday to honor the best in boundary-breaking film and TV. More from IndieWire The Sound of 'Severance' Is Way More Than Office Space 'Dreams (Sex Love)' Review: A Teen's Sexual Awakening Challenges Perceptions in Final Film of Norwegian Humanist Trilogy 'Anora' and 'Baby Reindeer' won the most categories in several tight races, but the show's main source of dramatic tension came from the countless news items surrounding a tough awards season. From fraught talk of cultural fascism to economic critiques of the entertainment industry, honorees and their peers predicted an uncertain but fiery future for filmmakers, cast, and crew. The word 'messy' came up in-conversation with IndieWire a lot. 'We're getting our butts kicked right now, but we're going to win in the end,' said Vera Drew, 'The People's Joker' auteur and John Cassavetes Award nominee, to IndieWire. 'It can be a little disheartening sometimes just to see how things move,' agreed 'The Fire Inside' star Ryan Destiny, nominated for Best Lead Performance. 'I'm just hoping that we can continue to go forward and not backwards.' Presented by Film Independent, the 40th Indie Spirit Awards memorialized the first year since the hosting nonprofit lost its late president Josh Welsh in December. The event also brought attendees back to its storied spot along the West Coast (coincidentally, the location is changing next year) — just a few miles south of the wreckage left by last month's devastating wildfires in the Pacific Palisades. 'We're in a world that eats your spirit,' said actress Lily Gladstone, nominated for Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series for 'Under the Bridge.' 'Spirit,' she said, 'is having that human experience and a big part of that is speaking from whatever our creative impulse is [inside]. That's what we do as storytellers and it's what keeps our autonomy alive.' On stage, 'Anora' filmmaker Sean Baker went semi-viral advocating for 'higher upfront fees' in a powerful Best Director acceptance speech. On the carpet, creatives of all kinds questioned how funding would — and wouldn't — hold back the right indie artists going forward. 'I want to see more stories from filmmakers we haven't heard from before,' said 'Dìdi' filmmaker Sean Wang, who won both Best First Screenplay and Best First Feature. Wang said he likes to see movies from first-time filmmakers because 'when you don't know the rules, it's more exciting.' 'I'm most excited for like 19-year-old queer kids with cameras to do some cool punk shit,' said 'I Saw the TV Glow' filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun when asked about the future of indie cinema. Nominated for Best Director, Best Feature, and Best Screenplay, they continued, 'And I'm least excited for 40-year-old straight men with cameras and lots and lots of money to do boring shit.' 'It's amazing the resilience of filmmakers, but I don't want to sugarcoat it, it's really, really hard,' cautioned director and Cassavetes winner Shuchi Talati. Made over eight years, her film 'Girls Will Be Girls' was an intense labor of love. Talati lamented to IndieWire that even with considerable success too many directors 'can't pay crew and cast and ourselves what I think people deserve.' 'Nickel Boys' filmmaker RaMell Ross argued you don't 'need a lot of money to make a film that's cinematic and deserves to be in theaters' — but urged for a broad reassessment of the cost-benefit analysis between artistic risk and economic return. 'I think we should be afraid of things continuing as they are, and we should hope for new models and paradigms,' Ross told IndieWire. 'The market is really uncertain so if you can do something of some quality for less there's a lot more freedom,' agreed 'Ghostlight' co-director and producer Alex Thompson. 'We get to make our own dreams come true at the independent level. And that comes with a lot of responsibility.' 'With more money, famously, there comes more problems,' said 'Ghostlight' co-director and writer Kelly O'Sullivan. 'But with really small budgets like ours, we were able to maintain full creative control. There's a clarity of vision. There's a preservation of artistic integrity. And you get to work with actors who are maybe just as talented as some of the more famous actors but haven't yet gotten their shot in the sun.' Also nominated for the Cassavetes, 'Ghostlight' follows a rag-tag theater group and stars Best Lead Performance nominee Keith Kupferer opposite his real family. 'To have my family here with me' representing the real Chicago theater scene at the Indie Spirits, Kupferer said, was 'a joy.' Authenticity fortified through community is at the core of all moviemaking and remained front of mind when guests looked back on both their past year's accomplishments — and the road ahead. 'You can't get a more tight-knit family than after making two microbudget films in a row,' said 'Jazzy' filmmaker Morrissa Maltz, now on her second Cassavetes nomination for a movie made for under $300,000. 'It was incredibly hard, but we got the films made. And that's what's important.' Nominated for Best Supporting Performance, 'A Different Man' actor Adam Pearson praised co-star Sebastian Stan (separately nominated for Best Lead Performance thanks to 'The Apprentice') and the wider artistic world for empowering his decades-long fight against the misrepresentation of disability in Hollywood. 'To any young actors coming up,' Pearson said, 'bide your time, make smart choices, know what kind of actor you want to be, and don't compromise on that. I'd rather act for myself and have no audience than act for an audience and have no self.' 'We see that the world is always faking everything and it's really uncomfortable and creepy,' echoed 'I Saw the TV Glow' star and Best Supporting Performance nominee Jack Haven. 'When you're queer you can't deny certain things about that lie.' Haven wore a jacket advocating for the people of Palestine and continued, 'We have to stay vigilant and stay brave and honest with ourselves and what we represent — and we can't confuse what it means to be independent. What it means to be independent is to stand in solidarity with the people who are being stolen from on this Earth.' Asked if art can fight fascism, their co-star and Best Lead Performance nominee Justice Smith said, 'Art can motivate people to fight fascism. But art cannot fight fascism.' Coming off a buzzy breakout performance in 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' at Sundance, actor Tonatiuh emphasized the intersection of community, authenticity, and shifting economic and geopolitical priorities all at once. 'A lot of the narratives that are the most interesting aren't the ones that are being taken a chance on because people want a high return on investment because, at the end of the day, it's still a business. But I think that dynamic is shifting and I think with this new geopolitical era that we're entering art is going to be the thing that gets us through any of it — and community. These circles is where we're going to be seeing the new frontier of filmmaking.' Best of IndieWire The 15 Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in January, from 'Fair Play' to 'Emily the Criminal' The 25 Best Sci-Fi TV Series of the 21st Century, Ranked The Best Modern Westerns, from 'The Power of the Dog' to 'Killers of the Flower Moon' to 'The Hateful Eight'
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Oscar's Final Tea Leaves: Spirits, SAG Awards & What They'll Reveal
Sets are being loaded into the Dolby Theatre, parts of Hollywood Boulevard are already closed and if you're going to the Oscars and haven't figured out what you're wearing (guilty!), it's time to make some even with the Oscars looming so close, there are still two more awards shows to tackle between now and 'I'd like to thank the Academy.' Saturday will bring Film Independent's Spirit Awards — the 40th edition — happening beachfront in Santa Monica and hosted for the second year in a row by Aidy Bryant, who like Oscars host Conan O'Brien was in the star-studded audience at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special this past Sunday. This coming Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, hosted by Kristen Bell, will then be the last precursor before the Spirit Awards, which for years went down on the day before the Oscars, don't always align with the larger awards season race — and can be better for it. Sure, there are some years when indie productions become the Oscar juggernauts, like Nomadland and Everything Everywhere All at Once, and barnstorm through the Spirits as well as the rest of awards season. But in last year's Barbenheimer-dominated race, Past Lives was the big Spirits winner. In 2021, when Netflix was putting most of its campaign muscle behind Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog, the Spirits showered awards on the streamer's quieter contender, The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie still the presumptive best picture frontrunner following its major guild wins, is nominated in many Spirits categories — Film Independent was the only awards body to throw a nom to Karren Karagulian for his hilarious supporting performance, and for that we salute the org. But The Neon dramedy tied in the nominations tally, at five apiece, with I Saw the TV Glow, the A24 release from director Jane Schoenbrun that's been a more modestly scaled indie hit. An affecting trans allegory and tribute to the cult TV shows of the '90s, I Saw the TV Glow has been highlighted by critics of Emilia Pérez as an example of cinematic trans storytelling that isn't sensationalistic or offensive. Schoenbrun even cheekily posted on X following the uproar around Karla Sofía Gascón's racist tweets, 'Weird I know one trans film whose creative team is associated with only the most wholesome and gutbusting tweets.'I maintained for much of this season that I Saw the TV Glow is exactly the kind of thrilling work from an up-and-coming filmmaker that in another era could have earned a screenplay nomination, like The Royal Tenenbaums, Y Tu Mamá También, Lars and the Real Girl, and many others before it. That obviously didn't happen, but I wonder if the Spirit Awards might take the opportunity to rally behind I Saw the TV Glow, assuming that Anora will have its chance to win elsewhere. The Spirit Awards will stream live on Film Independent's YouTube channel as well as IMDb's. Whether or not their film triumphs at the Spirit Awards, the Anora crew will be reuniting the following day at the SAG Awards, happening a little further inland at the Shrine Auditorium and streaming live on Netflix Sunday at 5 p.m. years the SAG Awards can play an outsize role in the final days of the Oscar campaign. Consider 2020's ceremony, held just six days after Oscar nominations were announced, which brought the surprise best ensemble win for Parasite, the best indication to that point that the industry had rallied behind the South Korean hit. (Four of the last five SAG ensemble winners have gone on to take the Academy's top honor.)This year, the SAG Awards are happening days after the end of final Oscar voting, which means no matter how good your SAG acceptance speech is (we're looking at you, Demi Moore), it's not going to win you any new votes. After the handful of shakeups from the BAFTAs last weekend, though, I'll be eagerly watching to see if SAG's winners might reflect any shifts in the race that happened before Oscar voting closed. I'll also have a close eye on the TV categories — most of the nominees were eligible for Emmys in 2024, but shows like Nobody Wants This, The Day of the Jackal and Matlock may show their strength for the 2025 race. SAG's best ensemble category, the actors' equivalent of best picture, could be particularly fun to watch. Anora is nominated, as is Conclave, which won BAFTA's top prize, renewing speculation that the well-liked Vatican thriller might be a consensus choice with the Academy too. They're joined in the top category by, oddly enough, three musical films: A Complete Unknown, Wicked and Emilia Pé Anora's many strengths is the ensemble cast that surrounds star Mikey Madison — a win in SAG's top category would be both well-deserved and practically a guarantee of an Oscar best picture triumph. But I can't help wondering if Wicked might pull off a SAG Awards ensemble win a la Hidden Figures in 2017: another Oscar best picture nominee that was not competitive to take the Academy's top prize, but was so well-liked — and so celebrated for its dynamic cast — that the actors' guild was eager to embrace the individual acting races I expect the four frontrunners of the season to continue their streaks, despite Madison's BAFTA win — which prompted rumblings that Demi Moore might face stiffer Oscar competition than expected. Personally I'm already picturing the traditional photo of all four acting Oscar winners, with Moore, Adrien Brody, Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin clinking their statuettes in a starry toast. But after talking to SAG Awards executive producers Jon Brockett and Linda Gierahn last week, I'll also be watching for some of the behind-the-scenes logistics that make this show possible. How does the camera get exactly where it needs to be for the perfect reaction shot? How can the SAG Awards, which had to cancel their nominations livestream as the wildfires raged in January, recapture a spirit of celebration? As a true awards nerd, I was thrilled to get the chance to ask Brockett and Gierahn all of it. Anyone who's ever put together a live production knows the week before can be intense, but for the team behind the SAG Awards, set for this coming Sunday, it's 'crunch time times a thousand,' says Brockett, who's marking his fourth year as the show's executive producer. With the Los Angeles wildfires having put their planning process on hold for several weeks, the SAG Awards team has essentially had about a month to assemble the last major pre-Oscar awards show of the season.'We joke that we get a week's worth of work done in one day,' adds Gierahn. 'Every day is just full speed ahead.' Gierahn and her Silent House Productions colleagues Baz Halpin and Mark Bracco joined the SAG Awards as EPs in 2024. Both Brockett and Gierahn are live TV veterans, well aware of how many people it takes to pull these shows off — and of how many jobs they create. So when it came time to reach out to the presenters and nominees for the SAG Awards, they sensed that people were ready not only to have something to celebrate, but also to support the Los Angeles film community in the process.'There were such sensitivities around the fires for obvious reasons,' says Brockett. 'And what we found was a real response, but it seemed to be based on the community — people wanting to come together.' Proceeds from the SAG Awards have always benefited the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, but with the foundation currently operating a disaster-relief fund, the evening's role as a fundraiser will be even more prominent, says Brockett. 'We have talked through that approach with talent too, and about their willingness to be a part of something special that is also giving back.'The evening will also have an 'escapism' element, as Brockett puts it, and few awards show traditions better capture that than the 'I Am An Actor' introductions that have begun each show in recent years. The SAG Awards team won't reveal to me who'll be participating this year, but Gierahn admits it's a 'coveted' role among the A-listers who attend. 'We love getting into the room and seeing not only the actors giving the 'I Am An Actor' speech, but all the actors around them,' adds Brockett. 'It is just a sea of celebrities in that room.' A sea of celebrities who have seen it all — but few are immune to the power of the moment if they actually win, and that's what keeps Gierahn coming back to the job year after year, no matter how much crunch time it requires. 'You have those moments during the show where you literally well up with tears because someone is so excited or just having this incredible moment in their life — and we're a part of that.'
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spirit Awards 2025: Shōgun, Baby Reindeer and How to Die Alone Among TV Winners — View Full List
The 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards — the top awards event for the independent film and television community — were handed out on Saturday from the beach in Santa Monica, Calif. The ceremony, hosted by Saturday Night Live vet Aidy Bryant for the second year in the row, was streamed live on the IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels at 5 pm ET, and across other social platforms. More from TVLine Critics Choice Awards 2025: The Penguin, Nobody Wants This and Matlock Among Winners How to Watch the 2025 Grammys Livestream Online Oscar Nominations: Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist and Wicked Lead 2025 List Netflix's Baby Reindeer walked away with three wins: Best Lead Performance for Richard Gadd, Best Supporting Performance for Nava Mau and Best Breakthrough Performance for Jessica Gunning. Meanwhile, FX's Shōgun took home the trophy for Best New Scripted Series. Keep scrolling for a complete list of Spirit Awards TV winners and select winners in major film categories. BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIESBaby ReindeerDiarra From DetroitEnglish TeacherFantasmas — WINNER BEST LEAD PERFORMANCEBrian Jordan Alvarez, English TeacherRichard Gadd, — WINNERLily Gladstone, Under the BridgeKathryn Hahn, Agatha All AlongCristin Milioti, The PenguinJulianne Moore, Mary & GeorgeHiroyuki Sanada, ShōgunAnna Sawai, ShōgunAndrew Scott, RipleyJulio Torres, Fantasmas BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCETadanobu Asano, ShōgunEnrico Colantoni, English TeacherBetty Gilpin, Three WomenChloe Guidry, Under The BridgeMoeka Hoshi, ShōgunStephanie Koenig, English TeacherPatti Lupone, Agatha All AlongNava Mau, — WINNERRuth Negga, Presumed InnocentBrian Tee, Expats BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE (NEW, SCRIPTED)Jessica Gunning, — WINNERDiarra Kilpatrick, Diarra From DetroitJoe Locke, Agatha All AlongMegan Stott, PenelopeHoa Xuande, The Sympathizer BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIESErased: WW2's Heroes of ColorHollywood Black — WINNERPhotographerRen FaireSocial Studies BEST ENSEMBLE CASTHow to Die Alone (WINNER)Melissa Duprey, Jaylee Hamidi, Keilyn Durrel Jones, Arkie Kandola, Elle Lorraine, Michelle McLeod, Chris 'CP' Powell, Conrad Ricamora, Natasha Rothwell, Jocko Sims BEST FEATUREAnoraI Saw the TV GlowNickel BoysSing SingThe Substance BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE Amy Adams, Nightbitch Ryan Destiny, The Fire Inside Colman Domingo, Sing Sing Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight Mikey Madison, — WINNERDemi Moore, The Substance Hunter Schafer, Cuckoo Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow June Squibb, Thelma Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE Yura Borisov, Anora Joan Chen, Dìdi Kieran Culkin, — WINNERDanielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson Carol Kane, Between the Temples Karren Karagulian, Anora Kani Kusruti, Girls Will Be Girls Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow Clarence 'Divine Eye' Maclin, Sing Sing Adam Pearson, A Different Man BEST DIRECTOR Ali Abbasi, The Apprentice Sean Baker, — WINNERBrady Corbet, The Brutalist Alonso Ruizpalacios, La Cocina Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow BEST SCREENPLAY Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, Heretic Jesse Eisenberg, — WINNERMegan Park, My Old Ass Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow BEST DOCUMENTARY Gaucho Gaucho Hummingbirds — WINNERPatrice: The Movie Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000 Big Boys Ghostlight — WINNERJazzy The People's Joker 2024 in Review: The 20 Best TV Shows of the Year View List Best of TVLine The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More People's Choice Awards: This Is Us, Grey's Anatomy and More TV Winners Billboard Music Awards: Post Malone, Kanye West and More 2020 Winners
New York Times
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards: See the Looks From the Blue Carpet
An awards show in Los Angeles by the beach? Try one that's on the beach. The Film Independent Spirit Awards is held in a tent near the Santa Monica pier in bright daylight (2 p.m. PST). For this 40th edition, 'Saturday Night Live' alum Aidy Bryant returns for her second year as host, shepherding a show that honors and celebrates independent film and television. Though there is considerable difference between the Indie Spirit Awards and the barrage of trophies given out during this time of year, considerable crossover does exist between the film nominees for this and the Oscars, including for 'A Real Pain,' 'Substance,' 'Anora' and 'Sing Sing.' But this ceremony also recognizes true up and comers, in categories such as the John Cassavetes Award (for the creative team behind films made for less than $1 million) and First Screenplay. Maybe because the show, which will be live-streamed, is held in the afternoon, there is a casual quality that runs through the telecast. But don't be fooled, stars still bring their style chops, and Ms. Bryant may have said it best last year during her monologue: 'I heard that this awards show wasn't fancy, but honestly this is one of the top ten nicest tents I've ever been in.'
Los Angeles Times
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
For the Record - Feb. 19, 2025
'SNL50': In the Feb. 18 Entertainment section, an article on 'SNL50: The Anniversary Special' misstated actor Aidy Bryant's first name as Andy. Also, Will Forte appeared as Elmo, not Cookie Monster. If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times' journalistic standards and practices, you may contact the readers' representative by email at by phone at (877) 554-4000 or by mail at 2300 E. Imperial Highway, El Segundo, CA 90245. The readers' representative office is online at
