‘Moonlight’ Shines at Spirit Awards, But Could Oscars Be as Bright?
Six wins at the Independent Spirit Awards are a great start to awards weekend for “Moonlight,” but “La La Land” looms on Sunday
Steve Pond | February 25, 2017 @ 4:47 PM
Last Updated: February 25, 2017 @ 4:56 PM
AWARDS BEAT
Getty
Spirit Awards voters did their part for “Moonlight.” Will Oscar voters do the same?
By giving Barry Jenkins’ acclaimed drama its best feature award, along with five other honors, the Film Independent Spirit Awards once again gave its top prize to the nominee most likely to win the Academy Award for Best Picture at a slightly bigger ceremony that takes place the day after the Spirits.
Four times in the last five years, including the last three in a row, that’s exactly what happened: “The Artist” won the Spirit Award and the Oscar on back-to-back days in 2012, and then “12 Years a Slave” did it in 2014, and and “Birdman” in 2015, and “Spotlight” last year.
In doing so, voters made a mockery of the slogan that used to surround the Indie Spirit Awards: “Win on Saturday, lose on Sunday.” It made sense back when “Pulp Fiction,” “Fargo,” “Lost in Translation,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno” were winning Spirit Awards and then losing Best Picture to bigger, more mainstream movies.
But as the Oscars got more indie, the Spirit Awards edged toward the mainstream themselves.
Spirit voters tried to continue the trend on Saturday by giving “Moonlight” awards for feature, director, screenplay, editing and cinematography, in addition to the Robert Altman Award for its director, casting director and ensemble cast.
But while they’ve given the awards to the only Spirit nominee with a real chance of winning the top Oscar on Sunday, to do that will require “Moonlight” to score a sizable upset over “La La Land,” the Oscar front-runner that wasn’t eligible for the Spirit Awards because its budget exceeded the (loose) $20 million limit for the Spirits, reportedly by about $10 million.
In other categories, Spirit Awards voters stuck to their recent habit of going for the nominee who also has a chance to win the Oscar. “Toni Erdmann,” the only Oscar nominee in the international-film field, won that award, and Oscar nominees took home Spirit Awards in the lead actor and actress categories (Casey Affleck for “Manchester by the Sea” and Isabelle Huppert for “Elle”), as well as for screenplay, editing and cinematography (all “Moonlight”).
Three Oscar nominees were also in the running in the Spirit Awards documentary category, and the voters opted for the one that’s the favorite to win on Sunday, too: Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America.”
In fact, there was only one category in which an Oscar nominee lost to someone who wasn’t nominated by the Academy: supporting male, in which “Hell or High Water” actor Ben Foster won over Lucas Hedges, an Oscar nominee for “Manchester by the Sea.” (Marhershala Ali, the supporting star of “Moonlight” who has emerged as the film’s strongest contender for an Oscar win, wasn’t even nominated in the Spirits category.)
So “Moonlight” utterly dominated the one awards show that takes place in the daylight. As for the one that’ll happen tomorrow after dark, that’ll be a much tougher task for Barry Jenkins and crew.
But for now, hope springs eternal, even as that “win on Saturday, lose on Sunday” motto looms.
Oscars 2017: Our Predictions in All 24 Categories (Photos)
It's been years since the last big sweep, but Damien Chazelle's musical is threatening to turn the Oscars into a 'La La' Palooza. Here's how TheWrap awards editor and veteran Oscarologist Steve Pond predicts this Sunday will go down.
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "Fences," "Hacksaw Ridge," "Hell or High Water," "Hidden Figures," "La La Land," "Lion," "Manchester by the Sea," "Moonlight"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST DIRECTOR
NOMINEES: Damien Chazelle, "La La Land"; Mel Gibson, "Hacksaw Ridge"; Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight"; Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester by the Sea"; Denis Villeneuve, "Arrival"
WINNER: Damien Chazelle
BEST ACTOR
NOMINEES: Casey Affleck, "Manchester by the Sea"; Andrew Garfield, "Hacksaw Ridge"; Ryan Gosling, "La La Land"; Viggo Mortensen, "Captain Fantastic"; Denzel Washington, "Fences"
WINNER: Denzel Washington
BEST ACTRESS
NOMINEES: Isabelle Huppert, "Elle"; Ruth Negga, "Loving"; Natalie Portman, "Jackie"; Emma Stone, "La La Land"; Meryl Streep, "Florence Foster Jenkins"
WINNER: Emma Stone
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
NOMINEES: Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight"; Jeff Bridges, "Hell or High Water"; Lucas Hedges, "Manchester by the Sea"; Dev Patel, "Lion"; Michael Shannon, "Nocturnal Animals"
WINNER: Mahershala Ali
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Best Supporting Actress
NOMINEES: Viola Davis, "Fences"; Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"; Nicole Kidman, "Lion"; Octavia Spencer, "Hidden Figures"; Michelle Williams, "Manchester by the Sea"
WINNER: Viola Davis
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "Fences," "Hidden Figures," "La La Land," "Moonlight"
WINNER: Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, "Moonlight"
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
NOMINEES: "Hell or High Water," "La La Land," "The Lobster," "Manchester by the Sea," "20th Century Women"
WINNER: Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester by the Sea"
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
NOMINEES: "Kubo and the Two Strings," "Moana," "My Life as a Zucchini," "The Red Turtle," "Zootopia"
WINNER: "Zootopia"
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
NOMINEES: "Land of Mine," "A Man Called Ove," "The Salesman," "Tanna," "Toni Erdmann"
WINNER: "The Salesman"
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
NOMINEES: "Fire at Sea," "I Am Not Your Negro," "Life, Animated," "O.J.: Made in America," "13th"
WINNER: "O.J.: Made in America"
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "La La Land," "Lion," "Moonlight," "Silence"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST FILM EDITING
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "Hacksaw Ridge," "Hell or High Water" "La La Land," "Moonlight"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," "Hail, Caesar!," "La La Land," "Passengers"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
NOMINEES: "Allied," "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," "Florence Foster Jenkins," "Jackie," "La La Land"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
NOMINEES: "A Man Called Ove," "Star Trek Beyond," "Suicide Squad"
WINNER: "Star Trek Beyond"
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
NOMINEES: "Jackie," "La La Land," "Lion," "Moonlight," "Passengers"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
NOMINEES: "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" from "La La Land," "Can't Stop the Feeling" from "Trolls," "City of Stars" from "La La Land," "The Empty Chair" from "Jim: The James Foley Story," "How Far I'll Go" from "Moana"
WINNER: "City of Stars" from "La La Land"
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
NOMINEES: "Deepwater Horizon," "Doctor Strange," "The Jungle Book," "Kubo and the Two Strings," "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"
WINNER: "The Jungle Book"
BEST SOUND EDITING
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "Deepwater Horizon," "Hacksaw Ridge," "La La Land," "Sully"
WINNER: "Hacksaw Ridge"
BEST SOUND MIXING
NOMINEES: "Arrival," "Hacksaw Ridge," "La La Land," "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"
WINNER: "La La Land"
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
NOMINEES: "Extremis," "4.1 Miles," "Joe's Violin," "Watani: My Homeland," "The White Helmets"
We watched all the shorts and documentary categories so you can slay on your office pool
It's been years since the last big sweep, but Damien Chazelle's musical is threatening to turn the Oscars into a 'La La' Palooza. Here's how TheWrap awards editor and veteran Oscarologist Steve Pond predicts this Sunday will go down.
