Spirit Awards: Chloé Zhao Wins Best Director For ‘Nomadland’ - Deadline

The 36th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards are underway Thursday night, with the final big awards show ahead of the Oscars taking on a different look for its virtual edition airing live on IFC and AMC+ and hosted by SNL‘s Melissa Villaseñor. The marquee indie-focused awards show was forced by the pandemic to move to a virtual ceremony from its usual spot on the beach in Santa Monica, and away from its traditional day-before-the-Oscars date.

In the film races, Oscar frontrunner Nomadland from Searchlight has already won the Directing prize for Chloé Zhao. She also won for Editing, while Joshua James Richards took the prize for Cinematography. Riz Ahmed won Best Male Lead for Sound of Metal, one of three wins so far for the Amazon Studios pic.

Earlier winners tonight include Emerald Fennell’s screenplay for Focus Features’ Promising Young Woman; she’s up for the Original Screenplay Oscar on Sunday. Fellow Oscar Best Picture candidate Sound of Metal also took the Best First Feature for director Darius Marder and producers Bill Benz, Kathy Benz, Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, and Supporting Actor for Paul Raci, who signed throughout his acceptance speech. His advice to other journeymen actors? “Don’t quit your day job, I never did,” he said, smiling. “I still have it too.”

Minari‘s Yuh-jung Youn was named Supporting Actress to solidify her frontrunner status for Sunday. Netflix’s Crip Camp won the Documentary Award, with Nicole Newnham thanking her executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama.

“I think that the film that Nicole and I and Sarah made proves that authentic stories are things that people really, really want to see, but it really took people with disabilities working on the film to really represent us in a light that we’ve really rarely been seen in,” fellow director Jim LeBrecht said.

Other winners tonight included Andy Siara winning Best First Screenplay for Palm Springs, while Amazon’s One Night in Miami director Regina King and the ensemble cast was honored with the Robert Altman Award.

The Spirits are introducing five new TV categories this year, and HBO’s smash I May Destroy You won Best New Scripted Series to go along with a previously announced Ensemble award, while Netflix’s Unorthodox stars Shira Haas and Amit Rahav swept the Female and Male Performance in a Scripted Series honors, respectively.

Still to come is the Best Feature category, where the nominees include tonight’s leading nom-getter Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Oscar Best Picture nominees Nomadland and Minari, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and First Cow. As per the norm, only movies made for a budget of $22.5 million or lower are eligible, meaning we won’t see the likes of other Oscar Best Pic hopefuls tonight like The Trial of the Chicago 7 or Mank. Still, Netflix lead all outlets with 16 noms coming in.

Check out the winners list below as we update throughout the evening.

BEST FEATURE

Nomadland

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
(The Someone to Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition)

EKWA MSANGI

Director of Farewell Amor

BEST MALE LEAD

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal

PRODUCERS AWARD
(The Producers Award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films)

Gerry Kim

BEST DIRECTOR

Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES

IMMIGRATION NATION

Executive Producers: Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Brandon Hill, Christian Thompson

Co-Executive Producers: Andrey Alistratov, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg, Lauren Haber

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

RESIDUE

Writer/Director: Merawi Gerima

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Joshua James Richards, Nomadland