The Independent Spirit Awards traditionally occur the same weekend as the Oscars awarding all films Independent hence why there wasn’t a blue person in sight. This year it was Precious that took the major prizes home winning all five awards that it was nominated for; Best Feature, Best Director (Lee Daniels), Best Female Lead (Gabourey Sidibie), Best Supporting Female (Mo’Nique) and Best First Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher).
This is a feat that I don’t think will reoccur on Sunday, with the exception of Mo’Nique but then again that is the brilliance of this awards show that recognises the years best work in independent film making. If you’re wondering where the Hurt Locker faired amongst all this then it didn’t as it was actually nominated last year after it played some festivals back in 2008.
Other big winners include Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges taking home the Best Male Lead award and earning the Best First Film accolade, Woody Harrelson took the Best Supporting Male for The Messanger, with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber winning Best Screenplay for (500) Days of Summer. The award that seems the most strange is that An Eduction won Best Foreign Film as it was a joint UK/France production, but I’m glad to see that it is getting some love across the pond.
So as a countdown to the Oscars the Independent Spirit awards are a good way to kick off the weekend as it always seems a lot more laid back than some of the other awards, maybe this is due to alcohol being consumed on stage as well as off. The location this year took a departure from the usual beach setting due to the 25th anniversary of the awards, however this did not stop the shenanigans with Ben Stiller bringing out half naked porn stars who writhed around in various sexual positions whilst he read out the Best Film nominees. This along with a joke by host Eddie Izzard that God may not exist is something that you will definitely not be seeing at this years Oscar ceremony.
