Austin B Media

View Original

2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards Winners: Everything Everywhere All at Once Sweeps

Over a week ago, independent filmmakers gathered under Film Independent's trademark tent on the beach at Santa Monica Pier.

This year marks the 38th Film Indepdendent Spirit Awards ceremony that saw Hasan Minhaj hosting the festivities with plenty of jabs at the film industry and its hyprocrisy (specifically, IFC for choosing to not carry this year's ceremony and Deadline for their headlines).

A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once, which has become a huge hit with audiences and critics alike, performed the best of the film nominees with eight nominations that included Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay (The Daniels) and three performance nominations: Michelle Yeoh in Lead, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis in Supporting. The film made Spirit Awards history with seven wins (the only loss being Curtis losing to Quan in Supporting Performance). At the time of the win, the film also made SAG history by sweeping those awards. More recently, the film made Oscars history by being the only film in the 95 years of Oscar ceremonies to win four above-the-line Oscars, is the only film to win three acting Oscars and also win for Best Picture, and also holds the records for most wins for a Best Picture winner since Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, which won eight Oscars.

Focus Features' Tár was also a huge hit in the nominations round of the 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards with seven nominations including Best Feature, Best Director, Lead Performance (Cate Blanchett) and Supporting Performance (Nina Hoss); though the film's sole win being that for Florian Hoffmeister's cinematography.

Robert Altman Award recipitent Women Talking earned four nominations including Best Feature, a category which features Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All and Our Father, the Devil. Charlotte Wells' directorial debut feature Aftersun earned five nominations and took home the award Best First Feature, about a month after she won the BAFTA for Debut Feature.

New this year is the Best Breakthrough Performance category, which Film Independent is using to highlight actors that becomes known to wider audiences through a noteworthy character portrayal. The first round of nominees include Stephanie Hsu of Everything Everywhere All at Once, Frankie Corio of Aftersun, Gracija Filipović of Murina, Lily McInerny of Palm Trees and Power Lines and Daniel Zolghadri of Funny Pages. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to those who have seen Everything Everywhere All at Once, but Hsu took the Spirit Award in this category.

Joining other awards shows such as The Grammys, The Gotham Awards, The British Independent Film Awards, and the MTV Movie & TV Awards, Film Independent moved to gender-neutral performance categories, with the former gender-specific performance categories being replaced by Best Lead and Best Supporting Performance, with ten nominees in each category. In Lead Performance, Michelle Yeoh took home the Spirit Award amongst fierce compeition from Cate Blanchett and Paul Mescal. The Supporting Performance category also went to a member of Everything Everywhere All at Once: Ke Huy Quan.

In the submissions round of the 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards, 409 films were submitted - a record number for Film Independent. This year's nominating committees electected nominees from over 25 different countries, with the guidelines that the film has to carry the following qualities: uniqueness of vision, original and provocative subject matter, economy of means. The Spirit Awards Nominating Committees are comprised of writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, actors, critics, casting directors, film festival programmers and other professionals in the film industry. Of the nominated writers and directors, 61% are women and 34% are BIPOC. Of all nominated actors, 70% are women and 27% are BIPOC. And of all 2023 nominees, 51% are women and 33% are BIPOC. This year, the Spirit Awards nominating committees are 50% female, 6% Nonbinary, 3% Transgender, and 61% BIPOC; 32% identify as LGBTQ+ and 8% identify as people with disabilities (PWD).

The budget cap for eligible films is increased to $30 million and the cap for the John Cassavetes Award has also doubled to $1 million. The John Cassavetes Award went to The Cathedral, both written and directed by Ricky D’Ambrose.

Moving to the TV nominees, Abbott ElementaryThe BearSeverance and Station Eleven tied for first place with three nominations each for scripted series. FX's The Bear ended the night with the most wins for a scripted series with two wins: Best New Scripted Series and Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series. Surpisingly, Severance and Station Eleven exited the Spirit Awards tent with no wins.

On the other side of TV, the Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series category, the nominees comprised of FX's Children of the Underground, HBO's Mind Over Murder and The Rehearsal, Netflix's Pepsi, Where's My Jet?, and Showtime's We Need to Talk About Cosby. Surprisngly, Nathan Fielder ended up winning in the category, which usually leans more towards true-crime stories.

Like the film nominees, the switch to gender-neutral performance categories extends into the Spirit Awards TV performance category Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series. As a result, Film Independent has added a Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series. Quinat Brunson won the Spirit Award for Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series for her role in Abbott Elementary. In Supporting Performance, Ayo Edebiri won for her performance in FX's The Bear. Pachinko took home the Spirit Award for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series.

The Spirit Awards Television Nominating Committees used the same guidelines as the Spirit Awards Film Nominating Committees. Of all nominated television creators, executive producers and co-executive producers, 37% are women and 26% are BIPOC. Of all nominated television performers, 47% are women and 67% are BIPOC. This year, the Spirit Awards nominating committees are 50% female, 6% Nonbinary, 3% Transgender, and 61% BIPOC; 32% identify as LGBTQ+ and 8% identify as people with disabilities (PWD).

In the interest of transparency, I am a Film Independent member, which means that I will be voting on the winners from the below nominees. As opposed to organizations like the HFPA and CCA, the winners are determined by Film Independent members like me!

Like all my previous awards season content, there'll be links to any available reviews.

The winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards are voted on by Film Independent Members. Membership is open to the public.

The following is a complete list of the winners:

Film Categories

Best Feature (Award given to the producer.)

Bones and All

Producers: Timothée Chalamet, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Luca Guadagnino, David Kajganich, Lorenzo Mieli, Marco Morabito, Gabriele Moratti, Theresa Park, Peter Spears

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang

Our Father, the Devil

Producers: Ellie Foumbi, Joseph Mastantuono

Tár

Producers: Todd Field, Scott Lambert, Alexandra Milchan

Women Talking

Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Frances McDormand

Best First Feature (Award given to director and producer)

Aftersun

Director: Charlotte Wells

Producers: Mark Ceryak, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski

Emily the Criminal

Director: John Patton Ford

Producers: Tyler Davidson, Aubrey Plaza, Drew Sykes

The Inspection

Director: Elegance Bratton

Producers: Effie T. Brown, Chester Algernal Gordon

Murina

Director: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

Producers: Danijel Pek, Rodrigo Teixeira

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Director/Producer: Jamie Dack

Producer: Leah Chen Baker

John Cassavetes Award – Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000 (Award given to the writer, director, and producer.)

The African Desperate

Writer/Director/Producer: Martine Syms

Writer/Producer: Rocket Caleshu

Producer: Vic Brooks

The Cathedral

Writer/Director: Ricky D’Ambrose

Producer: Graham Swon

Holy Emy

Writer/Director: Araceli Lemos

Writer/Producer: Giulia Caruso

Producers: Mathieu Bompoint, Ki Jin Kim, Konstantinos Vassilaros

A Love Song

Writer/Director/Producer: Max Walker-Silverman

Producers: Jesse Hope, Dan Janvey

Something in the Dirt

Writer/Director/Producer: Justin Benson

Director/Producer: Aaron Moorhead

Producer: David Lawson Jr.

Best Director

Todd Field

Tár

Kogonada

After Yang

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sarah Polley

Women Talking

Halina Reijn

Bodies Bodies Bodies

Best Screenplay

Lena Dunham

Catherine Called Birdy

Todd Field

Tár

Kogonada

After Yang

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Sarah Polley

Women Talking

Best First Screenplay

Joel Kim Booster

Fire Island

Jamie Dack, Audrey Findlay; Story by Jamie Dack

Palm Trees and Power Lines

K.D. Dávila

Emergency

Sarah DeLappe, Story by Kristen Roupenian

Bodies Bodies Bodies

John Patton Ford

Emily the Criminal

Best Lead Performance

Cate Blanchett

Tár

Dale Dickey

A Love Song

Mia Goth

Pearl

Regina Hall

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Paul Mescal

Aftersun

Aubrey Plaza

Emily the Criminal

Jeremy Pope

The Inspection

Andrea Riseborough

To Leslie

Taylor Russell

Bones and All

Michelle Yeoh

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Performance

Jamie Lee Curtis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Brian Tyree Henry

Causeway

Nina Hoss

Tár

Brian d’Arcy James

The Cathedral

Ke Huy Quan

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Trevante Rhodes

Bruiser

Theo Rossi

Emily the Criminal

Mark Rylance

Bones and All

Jonathan Tucker

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Gabrielle Union

The Inspection

Best Breakthrough Performance

Frankie Corio

Aftersun

Gracija Filipović

Murina

Stephanie Hsu

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Lily McInerny

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Daniel Zolghadri

Funny Pages

Best Cinematography

Florian Hoffmeister

Tár

Hélène Louvart

Murina

Gregory Oke

Aftersun

Eliot Rockett

Pearl

Anisia Uzeyman

Neptune Frost

Best Editing

Ricky D’Ambrose

The Cathedral

Dean Fleischer Camp, Nick Paley

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Blair McClendon

Aftersun

Paul Rogers

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Monika Willi

Tár

Robert Altman Award – Given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast

Women Talking

Director: Sarah Polley

Casting Directors: John Buchan, Jason Knight

Ensemble Cast: Shayla Brown, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Kira Guloien, Kate Hallett, Judith Ivey, Rooney Mara, Sheila McCarthy, Frances McDormand, Michelle McLeod, Liv McNeil, Ben Whishaw, August Winter

Best Documentary (Award given to the director and producer)

All That Breathes

Director/Producer: Shaunak Sen

Producers: Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Director/Producer: Laura Poitras

Producers: Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons

A House Made of Splinters

Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont

Producers: Monica Hellström

Midwives

Director/Producer: Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

Producers: Mila Aung-Thwin, Ulla Lehmann, Bob Moore

Riotsville, U.S.A.

Director: Sierra Pettengill

Producers: Sara Archambault, Jamila Wignot

Best International Film (Award given to the director)

Corsage

Austria/Luxembourg/France/Belgium/Italy/England

Director: Marie Kreutzer

Joyland

Pakistan/USA

Director: Saim Sadiq

Leonor Will Never Die

Philippines

Director: Martika Ramirez Escobar

Return to Seoul

South Korea/France/Belgium/Romania

Director: Davy Chou

Saint Omer

France

Director: Alice Diop

Producers Award presented by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey – The Producers Award, now in its 26th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films.

Liz Cardenas - recent films produced include Acidman, last year’s Spirit Awards nominee for Best First Feature 7 Days, the short film Burros, and many more.

Tory Lenosky - recent films produced include The Hater, Resurrection, and many more.

David Grove Churchill Viste - recent films produced include The Visitor, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Diary of a Spy, and many more.

Someone to Watch Award – The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 29th year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.

Adamma Ebo

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Nikyatu Jusu

Nanny

Araceli Lemos

Holy Emy

Truer Than Fiction Award – The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 28th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.

Isabel Castro

Mija

Reid Davenport

I Didn’t See You There

Rebeca Huntt

Beba

TV Categories

Best New Scripted Series

The Bear Creator/Executive Producer: Christopher Storer Executive Producers: Joanna Calo, Josh Senior, Hiro Murai Co-Executive Producer: Rene Gube

Pachinko Creator/Executive Producer: Soo Hugh Executive Producers: Michael Ellenberg, Lindsey Springer, Theresa Kang-Lowe, Richard Middleton, Justin Chon, Kogonada Co-Executive Producers: Dani Gorin, Sebastian Lee, David Kim, Ethan Kuperberg

The Porter Creators/Executive Producers: Marsha Greene, Annmarie Morais, Arnold Pinnock Creator/Co-Executive Producer: Bruce Ramsay Creator: Aubrey Nealon Executive Producers: Ian Dimerman, Jennifer Kawaja, Charles Officer, R.T. Thorne, Aml Ameen, Bruno Dubé, Alfre Woodard, Rose Catherine Pinkney, Devin Griffin Co-Executive Producers: Elise Cousineau, Andrea Glinski, Steve Cochrane, Daphne Park

Severance Creator/Executive Producer: Dan Erickson Executive Producers: Ben Stiller, Nicholas Weinstock, Jackie Cohn, Mark Friedman, Andrew Colville, Chris Black, John Cameron Co-Executive Producers: Jill Footlick, Kari Drake

Station Eleven Creator/Executive Producer: Patrick Somerville Executive Producers: Jessica Rhoades, Scott Steindorff, Dylan Russell, Scott Delman, Jeremy Podeswa, Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson Co-Executive Producers: David Nicksay, Nick Cuse

Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series

Children of the Underground

Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin, Ted Gesing, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Kate Barry

Co-Executive Producer: Julie Gaither

Mind Over Murder

Executive Producers: Marc Smerling, Nanfu Wang, Max Heckman, Chad Mumm, Mark W. Olsen, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez

Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?

Executive Producers: Nick Boak, Andrew Renzi, Andrew D. Corkin, Theo James, Andrew Fried, Jordan Wynn, Dane Lillegard, Sarina Roma Co-Executive

Producer: Jeremiah Murphy

The Rehearsal

Creator/Executive Producer: Nathan Fielder

Executive Producers: Dave Paige, Dan McManus, Christie Smith

Co-Executive Producers: Carrie Kemper, Eric Notarnicola

We Need to Talk About Cosby

Executive Producers: W. Kamau Bell, Andrew Fried, Katie A. King, Vinnie Malhotra, Dane Lillegard, Sarina Roma, Jordan Wynn Co-Executive Producer: Geraldine L. Porras

Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series

Aml Ameen The Porter

Mohammed Amer Mo

Quinta Brunson Abbott Elementary

Bridget Everett Somebody Somewhere

KaMillion Rap Sh!t

Melanie Lynskey Yellowjackets

Himesh Patel Station Eleven

Sue Ann Pien As We See It

Adam Scott Severance

Ben Whishaw This Is Going to Hurt

Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series

Danielle Deadwyler Station Eleven

Ayo Edebiri The Bear

Jeff Hiller Somebody Somewhere

Gbemisola Ikumelo A League of Their Own

Janelle James Abbott Elementary

Ebon Moss-Bachrach The Bear

Frankie Quiñones This Fool

Sheryl Lee Ralph Abbott Elementary

Molly Shannon I Love That For You

Tramell Tillman Severance

Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series

Pachinko Ensemble Cast: Soji Arai, Jin Ha, Inji Jeong, Minha Kim, Kaho Minami, Lee Minho, Steve Sanghyun Noh, Anna Sawai, Jimmi Simpson, Yuh-jung Youn

The final tally is as follows:

  • Everything Everywhere All At Once – 7

  • The Bear (TV)- 2

  • Abbott Elementary (TV) - 1

  • Aftersun - 1

  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed - 1

  • The Cathedral - 1

  • Emily the Criminal - 1

  • I Didn't See You There - 1

  • Joyland - 1

  • Nanny - 1

  • Pachinko (TV) - 1

  • The Rehearsal (TV) - 1

  • Tár - 1

  • Women Talking - 1

What do you think of the winners? What have you seen? What haven't you seen? What do you think got snubbed? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time!

Thanks to Shane Conto, Joseph Davis, David Walters, and Ambula Bula for supporting Austin B Media on Patreon!