The 37th Independent Spirit Awards kicked off on Sunday afternoon, with psychological drama The Lost Daughter and black-and-white social commentary Passing among the big winners of the night.
The Santa Monica ceremony, designed to celebrate the best of indie moviemaking and television, returned live and in-person for the first time in two years. Hosts Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman turned focus on the struggle for arthouse cinema. The theatrical industry has yet to regain its pre-pandemic levels of popularity, with smaller movies and shows that the Spirit Awards recognise struggling to boast impressive numbers when it comes to their audiences, with Offerman joking that “They’re going to see the eighth Spider-Man for the sixth time”.
Psychological drama The Lost Daughter was the biggest winner, taking home the awards for Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The success of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directing debut was helped by its release on Netflix, as streaming services have increasingly become the place to see new independent films as theatres battle ever-changing Covid restrictions.
The awards also tried to highlight underrepresented creators and people of colour. This was seen in the celebration of Reservation Dogs winning Best Ensemble Cast; Troy Kotsur, the first deaf actor to win a Spirit Award, winning Best Supporting Male; and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s comments on growing up to learn “the language of the men running the world around [her].”
The Awards give another indication of what and who may succeed in winning a prize at the Oscars on 28 March. With a number of recipients varying wildly between the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, the field remains relatively open ahead of the 94th ceremony on 27 March.
See the full list of nominees and winners here.
Words by Megan Geall
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