The comprehensive compilation of awardees at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards

The 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, held at Santa Monica Pier in California, recognized achievements in both film and television. This marked only the fourth time in the awards’ almost 40-year history that television was included in the celebration of independent films and filmmakers. Notable winners in the television categories included “Beef” for Best New Scripted Series and Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series for Ali Wong, as well as “The Last Of Us” for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series for Nick Offerman.

Film still dominated the evening, with “The Holdovers” winning three out of four categories it was nominated in, while other films like “Past Lives,” “American Fiction,” and “May December” also received recognition. “Past Lives” took home awards for Best Feature and Best Director, “American Fiction” won Best Lead Performance and Best Screenplay, and “May December” was awarded Best First Screenplay.

The full list of nominees and winners from the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards can be found on Film Independent’s YouTube channel.

Best Feature nominees included “All of Us Strangers,” “American Fiction,” “May December,” “Passages,” “Past Lives,” and “We Grown Now,” with “Past Lives” ultimately winning the category. In the Best First Feature category, nominees such as “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” “Chronicles of a Wandering Saint,” “Earth Mama,” “A Thousand and One,” and “Upon Entry” competed, with “A Thousand and One” emerging as the winner.
Upon Entry (Directors: Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez; Producers: Sergio Adrià, Carlos Juárez, Alba Sotorra, Carles Torras, and Xosé Zapata)

The John Cassavetes Award honors the best feature made with a budget of under $1 million. The nominees for this category include:

– The Artifice Girl (Director/Writer: Franklin Ritch; Producers: Aaron B. Koontz and Ashleigh Snead)
– Cadejo Blanco (Director/Writer/Producer: Justin Lerner; Producers: Mauricio Escobar, Ryan Friedkin, and Jack Patrick Hurley)
– Fremont (Director/Writer: Babak Jalali; Writer: Carolina Cavalli; Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, and Laura Wagner)
– Rotting in the Sun (Director/Writer: Sebastián Silva; Writer: Pedro Peirano; Producer: Jacob Wasserman)
– The Unknown Country (Director/Writer/Producer: Morrisa Maltz; Writer: Lily Gladstone; Writers/Producers: Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, and Vanara Taing; Producers: Katherine Harper, Laura Heberton, and Tommy Heitkamp)

The Best Director nominees are:

– Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)
– Todd Haynes (May December)
– William Oldroyd (Eileen)
– Ira Sachs (Passages)
– Celine Song (Past Lives)

In the category of Best Screenplay, the nominees include:

– David Hemingson (The Holdovers)
– Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)
– Laura Moss and Brendan J. O’Brien (Birth/Rebirth)
– Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott (Bottoms)
– Celine Song (Past Lives)

For Best First Screenplay, the nominees are:

– Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik (May December)
– Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Ben Platt (Theater Camp)
– Tomás Gómez Bustillo (Chronicles of a Wandering Saint)
– Laurel Parmet (The Starling Girl)
– Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez (Upon Entry)
Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez (Upon Entry)

Best Lead Performance

Jessica Chastain (Memory)
Greta Lee (Past Lives)
Trace Lysette (Monica)
Natalie Portman (May December)
Judy Reyes (Birth/Rebirth)
Franz Rogowski (Passages)
Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers)
Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One)
Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
Teo Yoo (Past Lives)

Best Supporting Performance

Erika Alexander (American Fiction)
Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
Noah Galvin (Theater Camp)
Anne Hathaway (Eileen)
Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry)
Marin Ireland (Eileen)
Charles Melton (May December)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
Catalina Saavedra (Rotting in the Sun)
Ben Whishaw (Passages)

Best Breakthrough Performance

Marshawn Lynch (Bottoms)
Atibon Nazaire (Mountains)
Tia Nomore (Earth Mama)
Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)
Anaita Walizada (Fremont)

Robert Altman Award

Honours one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast.

Showing Up (Director: Kelly Reichardt; Casting Director: Gayle Keller; Ensemble Cast: André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez, and Michelle Williams)

Best Documentary

Bye Bye Tiberias (Director: Lina Soualem; Producer: Jean-Marie Nizan)
Four Daughters (Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha)
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Directors/Producers: Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson; Producer: Tommy Oliver)
Kokomo City (Director: D. Smith; Producers: Bill Butler and Harris Doran)
The Mother of All Lies (Director/Producer: Asmae El Moudir)

Best International Film

Anatomy of a Fall (France; Director: Justine Triet)
Godland (Denmark/Iceland; Director: Hlynur Pálmason)
Mami Wata (Nigeria; Director: C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi)
Tótem (Mexico; Director: Lila Avilés)
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom, Poland, USA; Director: Jonathan Glazer)

Producers Award

Honours an emerging producer that has demonstrated the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films despite limited resources.

Rachael Fung
Graham Swon
Monique Walton

Someone to Watch Award

Honours a filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.

Joanna Arnow (The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed)
Laura Moss (Birth/Rebirth)
Monica Sorelle (Mountains)

Monica Sorelle (Mountains)

Truer Than Fiction Award
Honours an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.

Set Hernandez (unseen)
Jesse Short Bull, Laura Tomaselli (Lakota Nation vs. United States)
Sierra Urich (Joonam)

Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series

Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court (Executive Producers: Vinnie Malhotra, Aaron Saidman, Eli Holzman, and Dawn Porter)
Dear Mama (Executive Producers: 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)
Murder in Big Horn (Executive Producers: Matthew Galkin, Vinnie Malhotra
Co-Executive Producers: Lisa Kalikow, and Joshua Levine)
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence (Executive Producers: Mindy Goldberg, Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin, Zach Heinzerling, Krista Parris, Daniel Barban Levin, and Felicia Rosario; Co-Executive Producer: Julie Gaither)
Wrestlers (Executive Producers: Greg Whiteley and Ryan O’Dowd; Co-Executive Producers: Alejandro Melendez and Adam Leibowitz)

Best New Scripted Series

Beef (Creator/Executive Producer: Lee Sung Jin; Executive Producers: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, and Alli Reich; Co-Executive Producers: Alice Ju and Carrie Kemper)
Dreaming Whilst Black (Creator/Executive Producer: Adjani Salmon; Creators: Maximilian Evans, Natasha Jatania, and Laura Seixas; Executive Producers: Tanya Qureshi, Dhanny Joshi, Bal Samra, and Thomas Stogdon)
I’m a Virgo(Creator/Executive Producer: Boots Riley; Executive Producers: Tze Chun, Michael Ellenberg, Lindsey Springer, Jharrel Jerome, and Rebecca Rivo; Co-Executive Producers: Marcus Gardley and Carver Karaszewski)
Jury Duty (Creators/Executive Producers: Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky; Executive Producers: David Bernad, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Cody Heller, Todd Schulman, Jake Szymanski, and Andrew Weinberg)
Slip (Creator/Executive Producer: Zoe Lister-Jones; Executive Producers: Ro Donnelly, Dakota Johnson, Katie O’Connell Marsh, David Fortier, and Ivan Schneeberg)

New Scripted Series Nominations

Dreaming Whilst Black (Creator/Executive Producer: Adjani Salmon; Creators: Maximilian Evans, Natasha Jatania, and Laura Seixas; Executive Producers: Tanya Qureshi, Dhanny Joshi, Bal Samra, and Thomas Stogdon)

I’m a Virgo(Creator/Executive Producer: Boots Riley; Executive Producers: Tze Chun, Michael Ellenberg, Lindsey Springer, Jharrel Jerome, and Rebecca Rivo; Co-Executive Producers: Marcus Gardley and Carver Karaszewski)

Jury Duty (Creators/Executive Producers: Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky; Executive Producers: David Bernad, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Cody Heller, Todd Schulman, Jake Szymanski, and Andrew Weinberg)

Slip (Creator/Executive Producer: Zoe Lister-Jones; Executive Producers: Ro Donnelly, Dakota Johnson, Katie O’Connell Marsh, David Fortier, and Ivan Schneeberg)

Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series

Emma Corrin (A Murder at the End of the World)
Dominique Fishback (Swarm)
Betty Gilpin (Mrs. Davis)
Jharrel Jerome (I’m a Virgo)
Zoe Lister-Jones (Slip)
Bel Powley (A Small Light)
Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us)
Ramón Rodríguez (Will Trent)
Ali Wong (Beef)
Steven Yeun (Beef)

Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series

Murray Bartlett (The Last of Us)
Billie Eilish (Swarm)
Jack Farthing (Rain Dogs)
Nick Offerman (The Last of Us)
Adina Porter (The Changeling)
Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry)
Benny Safdie (The Curse)
Luke Tennie (Shrinking)
Olivia Washington (I’m a Virgo)
Jessica Williams (Shrinking)

Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series

Clark Backo (The Changeling)
Aria Mia Loberti (All the Light We Cannot See)
Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black)
Keivonn Montreal Woodard (The Last of Us)
Kara Young (I’m a Virgo)

Ensemble Cast in “Jury Duty”

Jury Duty (Ensemble Cast: 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)

Topics

Film