Latest news with #IndieSpirits
USA Today
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Anora' wins three Spirit Awards, including best film, and eyes Oscar success
'Anora' wins three Spirit Awards, including best film, and eyes Oscar success Show Caption Hide Caption 'Anora': Mikey Madison on why she's proud of 'vulnerable' final scene 'Anora' star Mikey Madison talks about the film's finale, in which she explores a range of emotions in a five-minute, single-shot car scene. SANTA MONICA, California − The past year has been "great for film, and a bad year for human life," host Aidy Bryant said to kick off the 40th Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. The awards show for movies made for less than $30 million is a famously laid-back affair ("White Lotus" star Walton Goggins rocked a sleeveless shirt) held in a giant tent off the Santa Monica Beach. But Saturday's winners are also vying for Oscar gold. With a little more than a week until the Academy Awards on March 2, the Indie Spirits honored writer and director Sean Baker's "Anora" with three major awards, including best feature, best director and best lead performance for star Mikey Madison. The drama about a Brooklyn sex worker (Madison) and her whirlwind affair with a Russian oligarch's son has gone from a Cinderella success story to Oscar frontrunner − with six Academy Award nominations, including best picture, best director for Baker, and best actress for Madison. Sign up for our Watch Party newsletter: We deliver the best movie and TV recommendations to your inbox. Accepting the best director's award, the self-confessed "indie film lifer" Baker gave an impassioned speech for independent films, which have taken a major financial hit amid declining DVD revenues. "We want complete artistic freedom and the freedom to cast who is right for the role, not who the studios want us to cast, considering box office value or how many followers they have on social media," Baker said. "This is for all the other indie film lifers who are holding on and fighting the good fight." Madison beat out Demi Moore ("The Substance") for the award, with both nominated for the best actress Oscar. Madison thanked Baker calling him "a wonderful friend and incredible Chihuahua owner. I'm so grateful that you came into my life," she said. Backstage, Madison deflected any attention about potential Oscar success. "I continuously go into these (award shows) not really expecting anything," said Madison. "I just am really grateful for the love that people have shown." Jesse Eisenberg thanks 'A Real Pain' producer Emma Stone Jesse Eisenberg won the best screenplay award for "A Real Pain," which he directed and starred in with Kieran Culkin. Eisenberg thanked producer Emma Stone. "She is definitely still the most famous person, yet also the most dedicated to encouraging me as a writer," Eisenberg said in his acceptance speech. "She's like my fairy godmother, and I am riding the coattails of her goodwill." Netflix's 'Baby Reindeer' wins three awards at Indie Spirits In the TV categories, FX's epic "Shōgun" won best scripted series, but "Baby Reindeer" dominated. The Netflix series about a struggling comedian stalked by an obsessed woman, grabbed three awards: Richard Gadd won best lead performance, Nava Mau won best supporting performance, and Jessica Gunning won best breakthrough performance. Gadd, who won three Emmys for the limited series (which won six Emmys), said the Indie Spirit win marked the end of his awards season. "It's been a real privilege these past six months," he said. "Coming from a small Scottish town and going on to being championed by the finest in Hollywood is absolutely crazy." The actor, who had been a struggling comedian before finding TV success, thanked the Spirit Awards. "I love how all the award shows are slightly different," said Gadd. "You've got the Emmys, and it's a big fancy thing. You've got the Golden Globes in the back of a hotel. And this is like an aircraft hangar on the beach. Any award that champions the underdog is absolutely right by me."
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spirit Awards: ‘How To Die Alone' Creator Natasha Rothwell Talks The Challenge Of Navigating 'Fairness' During 'A DEI Purge' And Celebrating Black Stories
Despite a recent cancellation for Hulu comedy series How To Die Alone, the celebrations will not stop for creator and actor Nathasa Rothwell. The series followed Mel (Rothwell) a Black, plus sized and perpetually broke JFK airport employee who's never been in love and forgotten how to dream, until an accidental death scare challenges her to ignite her passions. Earlier this month, Hulu terminated the series after one season. Rothwell, who won the Independent Spirit Award for ensemble cast in a new scripted series, spoke to Deadline ahead of the event on the Indie Spirits red carpet about the challenge of finding a new home for the series. 'Right now in Hollywood, there's a DEI purge of programs, positions and projects. And I feel it's unfortunate that How to Die Alone was not able to survive that. It was worthy by all merits. It was a critical success and we had the numbers and more importantly, we were centering marginalized voices. We had representation on the stage. And that representation is being honored tonight. So it's exciting to see the show get that recognition in spite of the circumstances.' More from Deadline Spirit Awards: 'The Penguin' Star Cristin Milioti Teases Potentially Working With 'The Batman' Star Zoë Kravtiz; "I Love Her. I Think We Could Really Get Into Some Real S-" 'The White Lotus' Season 3: Everything We Know About The Cast, Premiere Date & More 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Premiere Recap And Q&A: Natasha Rothwell Explains Why Belinda Is In Thailand & Teases "Tensions" To Come In addition to the Indie Spirit win, the show also received two nominations at the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. Rothwell went on to talk about the importance of being Black and having resilience in the cutthroat industry. 'Nothing quite prepares you for these particular types of shenanigans than being a Black woman that walks through this world,' the writer-actor said. 'Fairness is not something that we're as familiar with in a lot of areas. So being disappointed, those are experiences that I've felt before, but none at this magnitude. I'm grateful for the Black love and support of people who've shown up and held me up in encouragement. It's just confidence in knowing that the work speaks for itself. And although its journey is not what I had anticipated, it exists and people can find it and the message will live on forever.' Rothwell's next project will see her team up with TikTok's Tareasa 'Reesa Teesa' who went viral for sharing her true story about the wild dissolution of her marriage in 50 part videos that ranged from five to 10 minutes. 'I have so much stuff in store. That's the other silver lining when you're in a writer's room and in production for a TV show, your bandwidth is narrowed. So for the time being, I am able to entertain a lot of other projects.' Best of Deadline 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Arrive On Max? 'The White Lotus' Season 3: Everything We Know About The Cast, Premiere Date & More 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Seven Siblings Survive Nazi Germany In Documentary ‘UnBroken'
It's quiet on the indie front. Oscar contenders linger in theaters ahead of the March 2 Academy Awards ceremony that will close the book on 2024. The Indie Spirits unspool tomorrow. The Berlinale, with prizes to be handed out Sunday — along with Sundance last month and SXSW next — are planting cinema's new crop of independents. Neon is out with horror The Monkey, which appears to be scaling the heights in wide release. is still on screens. A24's The Brutalist continues its run. More from Deadline 'The Monkey' Swings To Neon's Second-Best Previews Ever With $1.9M - Box Office 'Captain America: Brave New World' To Hold No. 1 With $30M+ As 'The Monkey' Looks To Swing $17M Opening - Box Office Preview Chinese Blockbuster 'Ne Zha 2' Takes North American Bow, Matthew Rankin On 'Universal Language', 20th Annual Oscar-Nominated Shorts - Specialty Preview Relative newcomer by Matthew Rankin, from Oscilloscope, expands to 24 screens from two last weekend, adding runs in the New York and Los Angeles area along with Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Austin. The Cannes audience award-winner grossed $51k its first week at two theaters. New in limited release: Greenwich Entertainment debuts documentary by first-time director Beth Lane at the Quad in NYC and at Laemmle Town Center in LA, and on demand. Seven siblings evade capture and death and ultimately escaped Nazi Germany following their mother's incarceration and murder at Auschwitz. After being hidden by a benevolent farmer, the children — Alfons, Senta, Ruth, Gertrude, Renee, Judith and Bela Weber — spent two years on their own in war-torn Germany. The director is the daughter of Bela, the youngest sibling. Emboldened by their father's mandate that they stay together the children fight through hunger, loneliness, rape, bombings and fear. But their journey culminates with a painful ultimatum. Separated from their father, they are told that they must declare themselves orphans to escape to a new life in America. This salvation would become what would finally tear them apart, not to be reunited for another 40 years. Premiered at the Heartland Film Festival in 2023 where it won Best Premiere Documentary Feature, going on to screen at Doc NYC and other festivals across the U.S. It won audience awards at RiverRun International Film Festival in North Carolina, Julien Dubuque International Film Festival in Iowa and Berkshire International Film Festival in Massachusetts. Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing open TIFF-premiering action thriller on 17 screens including NYC's IFC Center and the Laemmle LA, and on demand. Inspired by real events, this is the story of the biggest and most spectacular heist in Danish history and the complex preparations by a team of ambitious and uncompromising criminals required to pull it off. In 2008, Kasper, a boxer with few chances left in life, is offered the opportunity to plan the robbery by its foreign initiators. At the risk of losing his family and everything that matters to him, he takes on the challenge in a bid to break all records. Directed by Frederik Louis Hviid, written by Anders Frithiof August. Starring Gustav Giese, Reda Kateb, Amanda Collin. Music Box Films' genre label Doppelgänger Releasing debuts home invasion horror by Mickey Keating. Produced by Joe Swanberg. A young woman arrives in the Chicago suburbs and begins to suspect that something terrible has happened to her missing cousin, but soon realizes that her greatest fears don't even begin to scratch the surface. Stars Vero Maynez and Colin on six screens including Alamo Drafthouse theaters in lower Manhattan, LA and Austin and the Music Box in Chicago. MORE Best of Deadline 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Arrive On Max? 'The White Lotus' Season 3: Everything We Know About The Cast, Premiere Date & More 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
