‘Spotlight,’ ‘Beasts of No Nation’ Win Big as Film Independent Spirit Awards Showcase Diverse Winners List
Beasts of No Nation co-stars Idris Elba and Abraham Attah (Randall Michelson/Wireimage)
The Film Independent Spirit Awards were handed out on Saturday. Overall, the ceremony was dominated by the journalism thriller Spotlight, which won Best Feature, Best Director for Tom McCarthy, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and the Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble. But the Spirit Awards — unfolding just one day before #OscarsSoWhite — made quite a statement when it came time to dole out the event’s acting prizes.
Three of the four acting awards were awarded to people of color, with Beasts of No Nation stars Abraham Attah (Best Male Lead) and Idris Elba (Best Supporting Male) winning alongside Tangerine breakout Mya Taylor (Best Supporting Female), who also became the first transgender actress to win a major award. Rounding out the acting categories was Best Female winner Brie Larson (Room), who’s largely considered a lock to win at the Oscars tomorrow night.
By contrast, the Academy’s 20 acting nominations went entirely to white nominees for the second consecutive year, leading to protests, calls for boycott, and new voting rules.
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Spirit Awards co-hosts Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live) and Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley) mocked the Oscar’s much-maligned diversity problem in their opening monologue at the event, held under a giant tent on the beach adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier. “Tonight we’re going to do everything we can’t do at the Oscars, baby,” McKinnon promised. “We’re going to cuss, we’re going to flash some nip. We’re gonna nominate some people who aren’t white!”
“Tonight’s nominees are more diverse than the cover of a brochure for a liberal arts college,” Nanjiani joked. “While the Oscar nominees are as diverse as the actual student body of a liberal arts college.” The comedians also poked fun at their own perceived standings within the film industry, saying that McKinnon, who is gay, and Nanjiani, who is Pakistani-American, are “as Hollywood thinks of us, a straight woman and her IT guy.”
Watch hosts Kate McKinnon and Kumail Nanjiani mock the Oscars’ lack of diversity:
The first acting award went to Elba for his role as a merciless military general in Beasts — he was generally considered the most egregious snub on the Oscars ballot. (The alum of The Wire also won Best Supporting Actor at January’s Screen Actors Guild Awards.) Elba was greeted with a partial standing ovation for the win, and he brought up his young co-star Attah to accept the award, telling the teen, “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
Attah would be back, though, beating out the likes of Jason Segel (The End of the Tour) and Ben Mendelsohn (Mississippi Grind) to win his first major trophy this awards season for playing Beasts’ fun-loving-kid-turned-killing-machine in an unnamed African country. The Ghana-born wunderkind earned the night’s most rousing reaction, with most of the crowd rising to their feet to applaud him. Attah delivered a gracious speech, thanking all the film’s major players, from director Cary Fukunaga down to the costume designer.
But perhaps the event’s most impressive win, as far as inclusiveness is concerned, came when Best Supporting Female went to the African-American transgender actress Mya Taylor, whom director Sean Baker plucked off the streets of Los Angeles for his low-budget drama-comedy, Tangerine, a film shot entirely on iPhones.
“I had come from almost nothing,” Taylor said while collecting the award. “And then I got this role in this movie and my life [did] a 360.” She wrapped up her speech with a plea to the filmmakers in attendance: “There is transgender talent. There’s very beautiful transgender talent. So you better get out there and put it in your next movie.”
Watch Taylor’s acceptance speech:
Complete Winners List:
Best Feature
Anomalisa
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
Spotlight WINNER
Tangerine
Best Director
Sean Baker, Tangerine
Cary Joji Fukunaga, Beasts of No Nation
Todd Haynes, Carol
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, Anomalisa
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight WINNER
David Robert Mitchell, It Follows
Best Screenplay
Charlie Kaufman, Anomalisa
Donald Margulies, The End of the Tour
Phyllis Nagy, Carol
Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer, Spotlight WINNER
S. Craig Zahler, Bone Tomahawk
Best First Feature
The Diary of a Teenage Girl WINNER
James White
Manos Sucias
Mediterranea
Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Best First Screenplay
Jesse Andrews, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jonas Carpignano, Mediterranea
Emma Donoghue, Room WINNER
Marielle Heller, The Diary of a Teenage Girl
John Magary, Russell Harbaugh & Myna Joseph, The Mend
Watch Abraham Attah accept his award:
Best Male Lead
Christopher Abbott, James White
Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation WINNER
Ben Mendelsohn, Mississippi Grind
Jason Segel, The End of the Tour
Koudous Seihon, Mediterranea
Best Female Lead
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room WINNER
Rooney Mara, Carol
Bel Powley, The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Tangerine
Watch Idris Elba accept his award:
Best Supporting Male
Kevin Corrigan, Results
Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation WINNER
Richard Jenkins, Bone Tomahawk
Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Best Supporting Female
Robin Bartlett, H.
Marin Ireland, Glass Chin
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anomalisa
Cynthia Nixon, James White
Mya Taylor, Tangerine WINNER
Best Documentary
(T)error
Best of Enemies
Heart of a Dog
The Look of Silence WINNER
Meru
The Russian Woodpecker
Best International Film
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Embrace of the Serpent
Girlhood
Mustang
Son of Saul WINNER
Best Cinematography
Beasts of No Nation
Carol WINNER
It Follows
Meadlowland
Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Best Editing
Heaven Knows What
It Follows
Manos Sucias
Room
Spotlight WINNER
John Cassavetes Award (Best Feature Under $500,000)
Advantageous
Christmas, Again
Heaven Knows What
Krisha WINNER
Out of My Hand
Robert Altman Award (Best Ensemble)
Spotlight WINNER
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