The cast of “Spotlight” accept their Best Feature award during the 31st Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California February 28, 2016.
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Youngster Abraham Attah from Ghana nabbed the top acting award, winning Best Male Lead for playing child soldier Agu in Beasts of No Nation, while Idris Elba won Best Supporting Male for his role as warlord Commandant in the film that was bought and released by Netflix.
“Spotlight”, about the Boson Globe’s probe into Catholic church child abuse and which is the Oscar best picture front-runner, also won Spirit Awards for best director, best screenplay and best editing. The lesbian drama Carol – seen by many as one of the Oscar’s biggest Best Picture snubs – won an award for Best Cinematography, and was the subject of a lengthy parody sketch featuring McKinnon and Nanjiani. The Spirits are always an informal, indie antidote to Sunday’s Oscars, but this year, the contrast between the back-to-back awards is starker than usual. Elba, Attah, and Taylor are all black; Taylor is the first transgender actress to ever win at the Spirit Awards.
The acting winners at Saturday’s Spirit awards provided a stark contrast to the Academy Award’s all-white list of acting nominees.
The show’s hosts, Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon and Silicon Valley’s Kumail Nanjiani, poked fun at the Oscar’s diversity controversy, and Kate joked, “We’re going to do everything you can’t do at the Oscars”.
“Maybe it’s not the old classic Hollywood, but it is damn straight the Hollywood of today”, said black transgender star Mya Taylor of her L.A.-set film “Tangerine”, a streetwise buddy dramedy, as she presented a clip. The Room also picked up the award for best first screenplay.
Room star Brie Larson, who is the front runner for the best actress Oscar, won the best actress Spirit award. “You better get out there and put them in your next movie”.
Laszlo Nemes’ “Son of Saul” took the worldwide award.
Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence”, centered on the Indonesian genocide of the 1960s, took the documentary trophy.
The Spirits, irreverent and breezy, marked a territory of its own, apart from the Oscars.
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Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain looked stunning in an Elie Saab creation at the Independent Spirit Awards. “It was incredible, it was like a homecoming for me”, he said. In Saturday’s ceremony, none could top writer-director Trey Edward Shults, who won the John Cassavetes Award for first feature made for under $500,000 for his “Krisha”.
