Winners of the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by Aubrey Plaza, were revealed on Saturday, February 23, one day before the Oscars. Unlike years past, when many Best Feature nominees coincided with the Academy Award choices, the 34th edition of the Spirit Awards, which celebrates indie fare, had no cross-over in the Best Picture category.
The biggest winner of the night was “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which took home Best Feature, Best Director for Barry Jenkins and Best Supporting Female for Regina King, who is likely to repeat at the Academy Awards. And Glenn Close, whose little white dog Pippi stole the show, is pretty much a lock to repeat her win for Best Female Lead at the Oscars as well. Otherwise, the Spirits were pretty much spread out, save for two honors granted to the horror remake “Suspiria,” the Robert Altman Award along with cinematography, and two wins, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Male for Richard E. Grant, for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
The American-made feature nominees — which were announced on November 16 — must have budgets under $20 million. They were determined by a committee of an unknown number drawn from “writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, actors, critics, casting directors, film festival programmers and other working film professionals.”
Instead of blockbusters like “Black Panther,” “A Star Is Born” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” these voters went small with “Eighth Grade,” “First Reformed,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Leave No Trace” and “You Were Never Really Here.” As for “Roma” and “The Favourite,” which led the best-pic Oscar pack with 10 nominations apiece, they competed for the Best International Film Spirit honor. (winners in yellow)
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BEST FEATURE
“Eighth Grade”
“First Reformed”
X-“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Leave No Trace”
“You Were Never Really Here”
BEST DIRECTOR
Debra Granik, “Leave No Trace”
X-Barry Jenkins, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Tamara Jenkins, “Private Life”
Lynne Ramsay, “You Were Never Really Here”
Paul Schrader, “First Reformed”
BEST FEMALE LEAD
X-Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Toni Collette, “Hereditary”
Elsie Fisher, “Eighth Grade”
Regina Hall, “Support the Girls”
Helena Howard, “Madeline’s Madeline”
Carey Mulligan, “Wildlife”
BEST MALE LEAD
John Cho, “Searching”
Daveed Diggs, “Blindspotting”
X-Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed”
Christian Malheiros, “Socrates”
Joaquin Phoenix, “You Were Never Really Here”
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Kayli Carter, “Private Life”
Tyne Daly, “A Bread Factory”
X-Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, “Leave No Trace”
J. Smith-Cameron, “Nancy”
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Raúl Castillo, “We the Animals”
Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
X-Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Josh Hamilton, “Eighth Grade”
John David Washington, “Monsters and Men”
BEST SCREENPLAY
Richard Glatzer (Writer/Story By), Rebecca Lenkiewicz & Wash Westmoreland, “Colette”
X-Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Tamara Jenkins, “Private Life”
Boots Riley, “Sorry to Bother You”
Paul Schrader, “First Reformed”
BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Hereditary”
X-“Sorry to Bother You”
“The Tale”
“We the Animals”
“Wildlife”
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
X-Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade”
Christina Choe, “Nancy”
Cory Finley, “Thoroughbreds”
Jennifer Fox, “The Tale”
Quinn Shephard (Writer/Story By) and Laurie Shephard (Story By), “Blame”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
“Minding the Gap”
“Of Fathers and Sons”
“On Her Shoulders”
“Shirkers”
X-“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
“Burning” (South Korea)
“The Favourite” (United Kingdom)
“Happy as Lazzaro” (Italy)
X-“Roma” (Mexico)
“Shoplifters” (Japan)
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
“A Bread Factory”
X-“En El Septimo Dia”
“Never Going Back”
“Socrates”
“Thunder Road”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ashley Connor, “Madeline’s Madeline”
Diego Garcia, “Wildlife”
Benjamin Loeb, “Mandy”
X-Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Suspiria”
Zak Mulligan, “We the Animals”
BEST EDITING
X-Joe Bini, “You Were Never Really Here”
Keiko Deguchi, Brian A. Kates & Jeremiah Zagar, “We the Animals”
Luke Dunkley, Nick Fenton, Chris Gill & Julian Hart, “American Animals”
Anne Fabini, Alex Hall and Gary Levy, “The Tale”
Nick Houy, “Mid90s”
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
“Suspiria”
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Alexandria Bombach, “On Her Shoulders”
X-Bing Liu, “Minding the Gap”
RaMell Ross, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
SOMEONE TO WATCH
X-Alex Moratto, “Socrates”
Ioana Uricaru, “Lemonade”
Jeremiah Zagar, “We the Animals”
PRODUCERS AWARD
Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams
Gabrielle Nadig
X-Shrihari Sathe
BONNIE AWARD
X-Debra Granik
Tamara Jenkins
Karyn Kusama
