Last night in a huge tent on Santa Monica beach, the Independent Spirit Awards, awards for Independent Filmmakers celebrated its 30th year with Birdman scooping up top prizes for Best Feature, Best Cinematography and Best Male Lead for Michael Keaton. Yay! It’s good to see Michael Keaton back on winning form. Whilst the super slick and stylish cinematography in Birdman which weaves round its actors and creates the illusion that the film is done almost entirely in one shot is most certainly deserving of the award.
Julianne Moore won the award for Female Lead for her role as someone with the developing stages of Alzheimer’s in Still Alice, whilst JK Simmons won Best Actor for his tyrannical and career defining performance as a ruthless music teacher in the Jazz drama Whiplash. Simmons commented on his new addition to an already hefty number of awards for the film, ‘"There's an embarrassingly large collection of them that are sitting on top of a mini fridge in our bathroom," I guess big displays aren’t quite his tempo. Whiplash also won the award for Editing.
Nightcrawler won Best First Feature while the unsettling Olympic wrestling drama Foxcatcher won The Special Distinction Award whilst Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice was awarded the Robert Altman Award.
Let’s see how the awards tally up for the Oscars this evening and if Simmons will also be getting an Oscar to go in his bathroom.
And The Winners Are...
Best Feature - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Director - Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Male lead - Michael Keaton for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Female lead - Julianne Moore for Still Alice
Supporting Male - JK Simmons for Whiplash
Supporting Female - Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
Screenplay - Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler
Cinematography - Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Editing - Tom Cross for Whiplash
Best First Feature - Nightcrawler
First Screenplay - Justin Simien for Dear White People
John Cassavetes Award - Land Ho!
Documentary - CITIZENFOUR
International Film - Ida
Robert Altman Award - Inherent Vice
Special Distinction Award - Foxcatcher