Independent Spirit Awards: The Big Winners

Celine Song’s quiet romance “Past Lives” won two of the biggest awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards Sunday afternoon, including best feature and best director. Other big winners were Cord Jefferson’s comedic satire “American Fiction,” with Jeffrey Wright winning for lead performer; and Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” which won prizes for Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.

The 39th edition of the show was held Sunday in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, and streamed live on IMDb and Film Independent’s YouTube channels and X accounts.

“Thank you so much for letting me share what it feels like to be human, to love and be loved, and thank you for loving our film,” Song said in accepting the directing prize.

Her film was among the top nominated at the show, alongside “May December,” which won only one award (for Samy Burch’s first screenplay) and “American Fiction,” which fared better.

Wright won for playing a frustrated author who becomes wildly successful by writing something he hates in “American Fiction.”

“You go to these awards shows, you kind of grow tired of them,” Wright said. “And then you get one, and it kind of changes the vibe a little bit.”

He noted that it was made independently because “nobody wanted to finance it.”

The Spirit Awards sit firmly within the larger Hollywood awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on March 10. But with a budget cap of $20 million for nominees, the show celebrates films that sometimes go unheralded, or at least under-nominated, at the bigger shows.

“Welcome to the Film Independent Spirit Awards, also known as the bisexual Oscars,” host Aidy Bryant said. Bryant called it “the only place in the world where $20 million is like no money.”

Randolph