The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards were handed out in a ceremony Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica, Ca. Hosted for the second year in a row by Aubrey Plaza, who began the night with a hilarious yet poignant skit about how Hollywood and the film industry has always sucked the lives out of its workers, both today and in the past.
READ MORE: Oscars 2020 Predictions: Joaquin Phoenix, Laura Dern and, oh yeah, “Parasite”
Plaza also mocked the state of independent film in light of streaming services, “Scorsese is doing films for Netflix, Sandler is doing dramas!” the host joked before going out on stage to sing a rendition of Judy Garland’s “Get Happy.” She later parodied “The Lighthouse” with Michael Shannon as Willem Dafoe’s character (honestly, we could watch a prequel with Shannon and Dafoe as brothers or something). But when it came to the show itself, nothing beat the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus to celebrate the lesser-known (or made up) LGBTQ moments in the nominated films, which quickly became a celebration of Laura Dern alone.
As for the winners, most of them were the usual suspect, director Bong Joon-ho took home Best International Film for “Parasite” and gave yet another winning and funny speech about seeing a rat run through a theater in New York during a screening of the film. Noah Baumbach earned Best Screenplay, and took the opportunity to say that winning for writing feels like a bit of an insult, as well as an honor.
There were, of course, some surprises, such as “See You Yesterday” taking Best First Screenplay, Zhao Shuzhen taking Best Supporting Female instead of Jennifer Lopez, though to be fair both were snubbed from the Oscars, so it’s nice that at the award at least went to one of the two.
But in truth, the night’s biggest winners were pretty much as expected, with “The Farewell,” “Marriage Story,” and “Uncut Gems” getting their moment to shine, whether it’s Lulu Wang giving an emotional speech about opportunity and representation when taking home Best Feature, Noah Baumbach and the cast of “Marriage Story” winning the Robert Altman Award, or the absolute two best speeches of the entire award season thus far, The Safdie Brothers accepting their award for Best Director by giving two simultaneous speeches that resembled the loud, overlapping dialogue of “Uncut Gems,” and Adam Sandler taking home the Best Male Lead award and giving a long, hilarious, f-bomb-charged speech where he gave a shoutout to his fellow nominees “who will henceforth be known as the guys who lost to fucking Adam Sandler.” Let’s see the Oscars top that.
READ MORE: ‘Parasite’ And ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Stun At The 2020 WGA Awards
Here’s the full list of nominees:
BEST FEATURE
A Hidden Life
Producers: Elisabeth Bentley, Dario Bergesio, Grant Hill, Josh Jeter
Clemency
Producers: Timur Bekbosunov, Julian Cautherley, Bronwyn Cornelius, Peter Wong
The Farewell – WINNER
Producers: Anita Gou, Daniele Melia, Andrew Miano, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub, Lulu
Wang, Chris Weitz, Jane Zheng
Marriage Story
Producers: Noah Baumbach, David Heyman
Uncut Gems
Producers: Eli Bush, Sebastian Bear-McClard, Scott Rudin
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Booksmart – WINNER
Director: Olivia Wilde
Producers: Chelsea Barnard, David Distenfeld, Jessica Elbaum, Megan Ellison,
Katie Silberman
The Climb
Director/Producer: Michael Angelo Covino
Producers: Noah Lang, Kyle Marvin
Diane
Director: Kent Jones
Producers: Luca Borghese, Ben Howe, Caroline Kaplan, Oren Moverman
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Director/Producer: Joe Talbot
Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Khaliah Neal, Christina Oh
The Mustang
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Producer: Ilan Goldman
See You Yesterday
Director: Stefon Bristol
Producer: Spike Lee
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Burning Cane
Writer/Director/Producer: Phillip Youmans
Producers: Ojo Akinlana, Jakob Johnson, Karen Kaia Livers, Mose Mayer,
Wendell Pierce, Isaac Webb, Cassandra Youmans
Colewell
Writer/Director: Tom Quinn
Producers: Joshua Blum, Alexandra Byer, Craig Shilowich, Matthew Thurm
Give Me Liberty – WINNER
Writer/Director/Producer: Kirill Mikhanovsky
Writer/Producer: Alice Austen
Producers: Val Abel, Wally Hall, Michael Manasseri, George Rush, Sergey Shtern
Premature
Writer/Director/Producer: Rashaad Ernesto Green
Writer: Zora Howard
Producer: Darren Dean, Joy Ganes
Wild Nights With Emily
Writer/Director/Producer: Madeleine Olnek
Producers: Anna Margarita Albelo, Casper Andreas, Max Rifkind-Barron
BEST DIRECTOR
Alma Har’el
Honey Boy
Lorene Scafaria
Hustlers
Julius Onah
Luce
Robert Eggers
The Lighthouse
Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie – WINNER
Uncut Gems
BEST SCREENPLAY
Noah Baumbach – WINNER
Marriage Story
Jason Begue, Shawn Snyder
To Dust
Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Uncut Gems
Chinonye Chukwu
Clemency
Tarell Alvin McCraney
High Flying Bird
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Fredrica Bailey & Stefon Bristol – WINNER
See You Yesterday
Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen
Driveways
Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy
Blow the Man Down
Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe
Greener Grass
James Montague & Craig W. Sanger
The Vast of Night
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Todd Banhazl
Hustlers
Jarin Blaschke – WINNER
The Lighthouse
Natasha Braier
Honey Boy
Chananun Chotrungroj
The Third Wife
Pawel Pogorzelski
Midsommar
BEST EDITING
Julie Béziau
The Third Wife
Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie – WINNER
Uncut Gems
Tyler L. Cook
Sword of Trust
Louise Ford
The Lighthouse
Kirill Mikhanovsky
Give Me Liberty
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Karen Allen
Colewell
Hong Chau
Driveways
Elisabeth Moss
Her Smell
Mary Kay Place
Diane
Alfre Woodard
Clemency
Renée Zellweger – WINNER
Judy
BEST MALE LEAD
Chris Galust
Give Me Liberty
Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Luce
Robert Pattinson
The Lighthouse
Matthias Schoenaerts
The Mustang
Adam Sandler – WINNER
Uncut Gems
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jennifer Lopez
Hustlers
Taylor Russell
Waves
Lauren “LoLo” Spencer
Give Me Liberty
Octavia Spencer
Luce
Zhao Shuzhen – WINNER
The Farewell
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Willem Dafoe – WINNER
The Lighthouse
Noah Jupe
Honey Boy
Shia LaBeouf
Honey Boy
Jonathan Majors
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Wendell Pierce
Burning Cane
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast
Marriage Story
Director: Noah Baumbach
Casting Directors: Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler
Ensemble Cast: Alan Alda, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, Julie Hagerty, Scarlett Johansson,
Ray Liotta, Azhy Robertson, Merritt Wever
BEST DOCUMENTARY
American Factory – WINNER
Director/Producer: Steven Bognar & Julia Reichert
Producers: Julie Parker Benello, Jeff Reichert
Apollo 11
Director/Producer: Todd Douglas Miller
Producers: Evan Krauss, Thomas Baxley Petersen
For Sama
Director: Edward Watts
Director/Producer: Waad al-Kateab
Honeyland
Director: Tamara Kotevska
Director/Producer: Ljubo Stefanov
Producer: Atanas Georgiev
Island of the Hungry Ghosts
Director/Producer: Gabrielle Brady
Producers: Gizem Acarla, Samm Haillay, Alex Kelly, Alexander Wadouh
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Invisible Life
Brazil
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Les Misérables
France
Director: Ladj Ly
Parasite – WINNER
South Korea
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
France
Director: Céline Sciamma
Retablo
Peru
Director: Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio L.
The Souvenir
United Kingdom
Director: Joanna Hogg
BONNIE AWARD
Marielle Heller
Kelly Reichardt – WINNER
Lulu Wang
PRODUCERS AWARD
Mollye Asher – WINNER
Krista Parris
Ryan Zacarias
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Rashaad Ernesto Green – WINNER
Director of Premature
Ash Mayfair
Director of The Third Wife
Joe Talbot
Director of The Last Black Man in San Francisco
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Khalik Allah
Director of Black Mother
Davy Rothbart
Director of 17 Blocks
Nadia Shihab – WINNER
Director of Jaddoland
Erick Stoll & Chase Whiteside
Director of América