Past Lives Wins Best Feature at 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards

Celine Song’s Past Lives has won Best Feature at the 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The film also picked up a win for Best Director for Song. Da’Vine Joy Randolph continued her incredible awards season run with another win for Best Supporting Performance for The Holdovers. The film also took home Best Cinematography and Breakthrough Performance for Dominic Sessa.

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction scored two wins for Best Lead Performance for Jeffrey Wright and Best Screenplay. Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up was honoured with the Robert Altman Award, which goes to a film’s director, casting directors, and ensemble cast.

Winners in bold below.

BEST FEATURE
 
All of Us Strangers
Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey 

American Fiction
Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair 

May December
Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Christine Vachon 

Passages
Producers: Michel Merkt, Saïd Ben Saïd 

Past Lives
Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon 

We Grown Now
Producers: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro
 
BEST FIRST FEATURE
 
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Director: Raven Jackson
Producers: Maria Altamirano, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski 

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Director: Tomás Gómez Bustillo
Producers: Gewan Brown, Amanda Freedman 

Earth Mama
Director/Producer: Savanah Leaf
Producers: Sam Bisbee, Shirley O’Connor, Medb Riordan, Cody Ryder 

A Thousand and One
Director: A.V. Rockwell
Producers: Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, Brad Weston 

Upon Entry
Directors: Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez
Producers: Sergio Adrià, Carlos Juárez, Alba Sotorra, Carles Torras, Xosé Zapata

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000
 
The Artifice Girl
Director/Writer: Franklin Ritch
Producers: Aaron B. Koontz, Ashleigh Snead 

Cadejo Blanco
Director/Writer/Producer: Justin Lerner
Producers: Mauricio Escobar, Ryan Friedkin, Jack Patrick Hurley 

Fremont
Director/Writer: Babak Jalali
Writer: Carolina Cavalli
Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, Laura Wagner 

Rotting in the Sun
Director/Writer: Sebastián Silva
Writer: Pedro Peirano
Producer: Jacob Wasserman 

The Unknown Country
Director/Writer/Producer: Morrisa Maltz
Writer: Lily Gladstone
Writers/Producers: Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, Vanara Taing
Producers: Katherine Harper, Laura Heberton, Tommy Heitkamp

BEST DIRECTOR 
 
Andrew Haigh
All of Us Strangers 

Todd Haynes
May December 

William Oldroyd
Eileen 

Ira Sachs
Passages 

Celine Song
Past Lives

 
BEST SCREENPLAY 
 
David Hemingson
The Holdovers 

Cord Jefferson
American Fiction 

Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien
Birth/Rebirth 

Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott
Bottoms 

Celine Song
Past Lives
 
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY 
 
Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik
May December 

Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt
Theater Camp 

Tomás Gómez Bustillo
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint 

Laurel Parmet
The Starling Girl 

Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez
Upon Entry
 
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE 
 
Jessica Chastain
Memory 

Greta Lee
Past Lives 

Trace Lysette
Monica 

Natalie Portman
May December 

Judy Reyes
Birth/Rebirth 

Franz Rogowski
Passages 

Andrew Scott
All of Us Strangers 

Teyana Taylor
A Thousand and One 

Jeffrey Wright
American Fiction 

Teo Yoo
Past Lives
 
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE 
 
Erika Alexander
American Fiction 

Sterling K. Brown
American Fiction 

Noah Galvin
Theater Camp 

Anne Hathaway
Eileen 

Glenn Howerton
BlackBerry 

Marin Ireland
Eileen 

Charles Melton
May December 

Da’Vine Joy Randolph
The Holdovers 

Catalina Saavedra
Rotting in the Sun 

Ben Whishaw
Passages
 
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
 
Marshawn Lynch
Bottoms 

Atibon Nazaire
Mountains 

Tia Nomore
Earth Mama 

Dominic Sessa
The Holdovers 

Anaita Wali Zada
Fremont
 
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 
 
Katelin Arizmendi
Monica 

Eigil Bryld
The Holdovers 

Jomo Fray
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt 

Pablo Lozano
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint 

Pat Scola
We Grown Now
 
BEST EDITING 
 
Santiago Cendejas, Gabriel Díaz, Sofía Subercaseaux
Rotting in the Sun 

Stephanie Filo
We Grown Now 

Daniel Garber
How to Blow Up a Pipeline 

Jon Philpot
Theater Camp 

Emanuele Tiziani
Upon Entry
 
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
 
Showing Up
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Casting Director: Gayle Keller
Ensemble Cast: André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez, Michelle Williams

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)
 
Bye Bye Tiberias
Director: Lina Soualem
Producer: Jean-Marie Nizan 

Four Daughters
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha 

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Directors/Producers: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson
Producer: Tommy Oliver 

Kokomo City
Director: D. Smith
Producers: Bill Butler, Harris Doran 

The Mother of All Lies
Director/Producer: Asmae El Moudir
 
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
 
Anatomy of a Fall
France
Director: Justine Triet 

Godland
Denmark/Iceland
Director: Hlynur Pálmason 

Mami Wata
Nigeria
Director: C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi 

Tótem
Mexico
Director: Lila Avilés 

The Zone of Interest
United Kingdom, Poland, USA
Director: Jonathan Glazer

PRODUCERS AWARD
The Producers Award, now in its 27th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films.
 
Rachael Fung 

Graham Swon 

Monique Walton
 
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 30th year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.
 
Joanna Arnow
Director of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed 

Laura Moss
Director of Birth/Rebirth 

Monica Sorelle
Director of Mountains


TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 29th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.
 
Set Hernandez
Director of unseen 

Jesse Short Bull, Laura Tomaselli
Director of Lakota Nation vs. United States 

Sierra Urich
Director of Joonam


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Author: Doug Jamieson

From musicals to horror and everything in between, Doug has an eclectic taste in films. Both a champion of independent cinema and a defender of more mainstream fare, he prefers to find an equal balance between two worlds often at odds with each other. A film critic by trade but a film fan at heart, Doug also writes for his own website The Jam Report, and Australia’s the AU review.