The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards, honoring the best independent films and television series of 2023, were presented by Film Independent on February 25, 2024.[1][2][3] The ceremony took place at the Santa Monica PierinSanta Monica, California, and was hosted by American actress and comedian Aidy Bryant. For the second year in a row, the ceremony was streamed live on the YouTube channels of both IMDb and Film Independent, among other social platforms.[4][5][6][7][8]
| 39th Independent Spirit Awards | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best in independent film and independent television |
| Date | February 25, 2024 |
| Site | Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Hosted by | Aidy Bryant |
| Highlights | |
| Best Feature | Past Lives |
| Most awards | The Holdovers (3) |
| Most nominations | American Fiction / May December / Past Lives (5) |
| Television coverage | |
| Network | YouTube (through @filmindependent + @imdb) |
| |
The nominations were announced live via YouTube on December 5, 2023, by actors Joel Kim Booster and Natalie Morales. American Fiction, May December, and Past Lives led the film nominations with five each, followed by The Holdovers and Passages with four apiece; for the television categories, I'm a Virgo and The Last of Us received the most nominations with four each.[9][10][11][12][13]
The grant recipients of the Emerging Filmmakers Awards were announced on January 6, 2024.[14]
This year, Film Independent added a new category: Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series. This move evens the number of performance categories for film and TV; three on the film side (Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, and Best Breakthrough Performance) and three on the television side (Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series, Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series, and now Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series).[15]
| Nominations | Film |
|---|---|
| 5 | American Fiction |
| May December | |
| Past Lives | |
| 4 | The Holdovers |
| Passages | |
| 3 | All of Us Strangers |
| Birth/Rebirth | |
| Chronicles of a Wandering Saint | |
| Eileen | |
| Rotting in the Sun | |
| Theater Camp | |
| Upon Entry | |
| We Grown Now | |
| 2 | All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt |
| Bottoms | |
| Earth Mama | |
| Fremont | |
| Monica | |
| Mountains | |
| A Thousand and One |
| Awards | Film |
|---|---|
| 3 | The Holdovers |
| 2 | American Fiction |
| Past Lives |
| Best New Scripted Series | Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series |
|---|---|
|
Beef – Lee Sung Jin (creator/executive producer); Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, and Alli Reich (executive producers); Alice Ju and Carrie Kemper (co-executive producers) (Netflix)
|
Dear Mama – Lasse Järvi, Quincy "QD3" Jones III, Staci Robinson, Nelson George, Charles D. King, Peter Nelson, Adel "Future" Nur, Jamal Joseph, Ted Skillman, Allen Hughes, Steve Berman, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, John Janick, Nicholas Ferrall, and Nigel Sinclair (executive producers) (FX)
|
| Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series | Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series |
|
Ali Wong – Beef as Amy Lau (Netflix)
|
Nick Offerman – The Last of Us as Bill (HBO)
|
| Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series | Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series |
|
Keivonn Montreal Woodard – The Last of Us as Sam (HBO)
|
Jury Duty – Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, James Marsden, Edy Modica, Kerry O'Neill, Rashida Olayiwola, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, and Evan Williams |
| Nominations | Series |
|---|---|
| 4 | I'm a Virgo |
| The Last of Us | |
| 3 | Beef |
| 2 | The Changeling |
| Dreaming Whilst Black | |
| Jury Duty | |
| Shrinking | |
| Slip | |
| Swarm |
| Wins | Series |
|---|---|
| 2 | Beef |
| The Last of Us |
(The award is given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Fremont – Babak Jalali (director/writer); Carolina Cavalli (writer); Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, and Laura Wagner (producers)
(The award is given to the film's director, casting director, and ensemble cast)
The award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films.
The award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.
The award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.
Outside the venue, a handful of protesters were located on the beach in Santa Monica playing previously recorded chants on a megaphone, such as "free Palestine", "long live Palestine" and "ceasefire now", which played on a loop throughout most of the ceremony and was audible to everyone inside; host Aidy Bryant, and winners Babak Jalali and Kelly Reichardt referenced the chants in their speeches. It was also revealed that the disruption was coming from one young male who was holding the loudspeaker and standing on the outer part of the Spirits barricade; a group of security guards and Spirits showrunners tried to reason with the protester, who was quite calm and tranquil, but to no success. Another group of Spirits security guards stood by and watched; three police officers, one in fully armed gear, looked on.[16][17][18]
Additionally, The New York Times pop culture reporter Kyle Buchanan spoke to the protester who refused to give a statement and revealed that he is with the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression; the protester elaborated that The New York Times "is a publication that has been complicit in misinformation and distortion of the facts".[19]
Furthermore, film critic Tomris Laffly was able to speak to one of the protesters, Vivian Wiseman, about disrupting awards events to keep a light on the events happening in Palestine; Wiseman told Laffly: "We want everyone to know that the activists and the people who care are going to disrupt them wherever they go because we believe in love, we believe in peace, and we believe in liberation of the Palestinian people."[20]
Afterward, Josh Welsh, the long-serving president of Film Independent, responded to the scene, saying: "We embrace the First Amendment and freedom of speech, and this is clearly a moment when people feel passionately about what's happening in the world and want to speak about it. We support that. Of course, we also want to honor the filmmakers here today in their moment being recognized for their beautiful work. But I think today was a beautiful show and people incorporated what was going on into their remarks in really great ways."[21]
The following day, the Los Angeles Times revealed that filmmaker Merawi Gerima was among the protesters; Gerima previously won the John Cassavetes Award for his film Residue at the 36th Independent Spirit Awards in 2021. A video posted to the Instagram page of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) showed the beginning of the protest, with Gerima speaking into a loudspeaker to announce they are there on behalf of the USPCN and the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression. "We say it is far better to stand with the oppressed people around the world than with the oppressors here in Hollywood," Gerima said in the video, before specifically calling out multiple times actor Jeffrey Wright, star of the film American Fiction; the film won two awards, including Best Lead Performance for Wright. "It's not enough to have a film about racism, Mr. Jeffrey Wright," said Gerima. "It's not enough to have a film about oppression in the United States, Jeffrey Wright. It is far more important to stand against oppression and racism as it exists in the world today in solidarity with the Black and brown people of the planet, particularly Palestinians." Gerima stated in another video: "A whole industry of communicators is absolutely silent in the face of genocide. And so we say no business as usual, not even in Hollywood." A request for comment from Gerima was not responded to while Film Independent did not respond to a request for comment on the protest.[22]