Indie Spirit Award nomination leader “Everything Everywhere All At Once” has solidified its Oscar frontrunner status, winning seven awards on Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica, including Best Feature, Best Lead Performance (Michelle Yeah), Best Supporting Performance (Ke Huy Quan), Best Director, Best Screenplay (each awarded to the directorial duo The Daniels), Best Film Editing, and Best Breakthrough Performance for Stephanie Hsu.
The film won in every single category it was nominated. Quan was competing alongside his costar Jamie Lee Curtis in the Best Supporting Performance race, giving the film a ceiling of seven wins despite its eight nominations. And seven mark the most wins ever for a single film at the Indie Spirit Awards. Barry Jenkins’s 2016 “Moonlight” (distributed, like “Everything Everywhere,” by A24) was the previous record holder, with five competitive award wins, in addition to the honorary Robert Atman Award, recognizing a film’s ensemble cast.
This year, the Robert Altman Award went to “Women Talking,” the Best Picture Oscar nominee, which was accepted by director Sarah Polley, her casting directors, and the nearly all female cast.
The show was hosted by Hasan Minhaj, who kicked off the afternoon with biting jabs at the show’s former network IFC – it streamed on YouTube and IMDb this year – and the scourge of clickbait journalism.
In other film categories, “Aftersun” filmmaker Charlotte Wells scored the award for Best First Feature for her semi-autobiographical film starring Oscar-nominee Paul Mescal. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” won for Best Documentary. Pakistan’s “Joyland” was the winner for Best International Film. Todd Field’s “Tár” took the prize for Best Cinematography, which Field accepted on behalf of cameraman Florian Hoffmeister.
In the television categories, which are all devoted to shows that premiered in 2022, Hulu’s “The Bear” nabbed the award for Best New Scripted Series. Quinta Brunson of “Abbot Elementary”(ABC) took the award for Best Lead Performance and Ayo Edibiri of “The Bear” nabbed the award for Best Supporting Performance. In the category of Best Non-Fiction Series, the winner was HBO’s “The Rehearsal.”
For the first time, the Spirit Awards’ acting categories were gender-neutral, with 10 nominees instead of five in lead and supporting categories. In those categories, women outnumbered men slightly, with the biggest disparity in lead film category, with eight women (including Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh) against the sole male nominees Paul Mescal and Jeremy Pope.
For most of its 38-year existence, the Spirit Awards have been an indie alternative to the Oscars, with only 1986’s “Platoon” winning the top award at both shows for the first 26 years of the Spirits’ existence. Beginning with “The Artist” in 2011, though, the Spirit Awards had a six-year streak in which five of its winners went on to be named Best Picture at the Oscars. Since then, “Nomadland” has been the only match, although Spirit Award voters have a tendency to vote for Oscar nominees and likely Oscar winners anytime they’re on the ballot.
And true to form, apart from Best International Film (which included not a single Oscar nod), current Oscar nominees dominated in every Oscar equivalent category at the Indie Spirit Awards.
Here is the list of nominees. Winners are indicated with *WINNER.
FILM CATEGORIES
Best Feature
“Bones and All”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” *WINNER
“Our Father, the Devil”
“Tár”
“Women Talking”
Best First Feature
“Aftersun” *WINNER
“Emily the Criminal”
“The Inspection”
“Murina”
“Palm Trees and Power Lines”
Best Director
Todd Field, “Tár”
Kogonada, “After Yang”
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
Lily McInerny, “Palm Trees and Power Lines”
Daniel Zolghadri, “Funny Pages”
Best Cinematography
Florian Hoffmeister, “Tár” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
Monika Willi, “Tár”
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”
“A Love Song”
“The Cathedral” *WINNER
“Holy Emy”
“Something in the Dirt”
Robert Altman Award
Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast
“Women Talking” *WINNER
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
“All That Breathes”
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” *WINNER
“A House Made of Splinters”
“Midwives”
“Riotsville, U.S.A.”
Best International Film
“Corsage”
“Joyland” *WINNER
“Leonor Will Never Die”
“Return to Seoul”
“Saint Omer”
Producers Award
Honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films.
Liz Cardenas
Tory Lenosky *WINNER
David Grove Churchill Viste
Someone to Watch Award
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” *WINNER
Araceli Lemos, “Holy Emy”
Truer Than Fiction Award
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” *WINNER
Rebeca Huntt, “Beba”
TELEVISION CATEGORIES
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
“Children of the Underground”
“Mind Over Murder”
“Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?”
“The Rehearsal” *WINNER
“We Need to Talk About Cosby”
Best New Scripted Series
“The Bear” *WINNER
“Pachinko”
“The Porter”
“Severance”
“Station Eleven”
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series
Aml Ameen, “The Porter”
Mohammed Amer, “Mo”
Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary” *WINNER
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 Edibiri, “The Bear” *WINNER
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” *WINNER
Ensemble Cast: Soji Arai, Jin Ha, Inji Jeong, Minha Kim, Kaho Minami, Lee Minho, Steve Sanghyun Noh, Anna Sawai, Jimmi Simpson, Yuh-jung Youn