2014 Independent Spirit Award Winners

Here are the results of the  2014 Indepenedent Film Spirit Awards as reported by Steve Pond at THR…

On the eve of the 86th Annual Academy Awards, Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” dominated the Independent Spirit Awards taking home five including Best Feature, Best Director for Steve McQueen, Best  Supporting Female for Lupita Nyong’o, Best Screenplay for John Ridley and Best Cinematography for Sean Bobbitt.  

In an eloquent speech, Nyong’o said she realized after taking an independent film class in college that “independent film is where stuff actually happens — stuff that matters.”

The only other film to win more than one award was “Dallas Buyers Club,” which won for lead actor Matthew McConaughy and supporting actor Jared Leto.

Leto’s speech included a thank-you to “all the women I’ve been with, and all the women who think they’ve been with me,” and another to “my future ex-wife — Lupita, I’m thinking of you.”

In the first 28 years of the Spirit Awards’ existence, its best-feature winner went on to take the top Oscar only twice: “Platoon”in 1988, and “The Artist” in 2012.  Other recent winners include “Black Swan,” “Precious,” “The Wrestler,” “Juno” and 2013’s top film, “Silver Linings Playbook.”

“Fruitvale Station” won the award for Best First Feature, with director Ryan Coogler drawing a standing ovation with his emotional speech pointing out other cases similar to the one depicted in his film, in which a young, unarmed black man was gunned down by transit police in Northern California.

Bob Nelson won the Best First Screenplay award for “Nebraska,” which he wrote about 10 years ago while working in television in Seattle.

“Blue Is the Warmest Color” won the award for the best international film, and “20 Feet From Stardom” was named best documentary.

The John Cassavetes Award, which goes to an ultra low-budget film, went to Chad Haritgan for the understated study “This Is Martin Bonner,” which Hartigan said was made for $42,000.

The show was hosted by Patton Oswalt, whose opening monologue drew a few groans and very little laughter.

Here is the list of nominees. Winners indicated by *WINNER.

Best Feature:

“12 Years a Slave”  *WINNER
“All Is Lost”
“Frances Ha”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Nebraska”

Best Director:
Shane Carruth, “Upstream Color”
J.C. Chandor, “All is Lost”
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”  *WINNER
Jeff Nichols, “Mud”
Alexander Payne, “Nebraska”

Best Screenplay:
Woody Allen, “Blue Jasmine”
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater, “Before Midnight”
Nicole Holofcener, “Enough Said”
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, “The Spectacular Now”
John Ridley, “12 Years a Slave”  *WINNER

Best Female Lead:
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine” *WINNER
Julie Delpy, “Before Midnight”
Gaby Hoffman, “Crystal Fairy”
Brie Larson, “Short Term 12″
Shailene Woodley, “The Spectacular Now”

Best Male Lead:
Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Oscar Isaac, “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Michael B. Jordan, “Fruitvale Station”
Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”  *WINNER
Robert Redford, “All Is Lost”

Best Supporting Female:
Melonie Diaz, “Fruitvale Station”
Sally Hawkins, “Blue Jasmine”
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave” *WINNER
Yolonda Ross, “Go for Sisters”
June Squibb, “Nebraska”

Best Supporting Male:
Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
Will Forte, “Nebraska”
James Gandolfini, “Enough Said”
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club” *WINNER
Keith Stanfield, “Short Term 12”

Best First Feature:
“Blue Caprice”
“Concussion”
“Fruitvale Station” *WINNER
“Una Noche”
“Wadjda”

Best First Screenplay:
“In a World,” Lake Bell
“Don Jon,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“Nebraska,” Bob Nelson *WINNER
“Afternoon Delight,” Jill Soloway
“The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete,” Michael Starrbury

John Cassavetes Award:
“Computer Chess”
“Crystal Fairy”
“Museum Hours”
“Pit Stop”
“This Is Martin Bonner”  *WINNER

Best Cinematography:
Sean Bobbit, “12 Years a Slave”  *WINNER
Benoit Debie, “Spring Breakers”
Bruno Delbonnel, “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Frank G. DeMarco, “All Is Lost”
Matthias Grunsky, “Computer Chess”

Best Editing:
Shane Carruth & David Lowery, “Upstream Color”
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives, “Museum Hours”
Jennifer Lame, “Frances Ha”
Cindy Lee, “Una Noche”
Nat Sanders, “Short Term 12”  *WINNER

Best Documentary:
“20 Feet From Stardom”  *WINNER
“After Tiller”
“Gideon’s Army”
“The Act of Killing”
“The Square”

Best International Film:
“A Touch of Sin”
“Blue Is the Warmest Color”  *WINNER
“Gloria”
“The Great Beauty”
“The Hunt”

Robert Altman Award (given to a film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast): “Mud”
Piaget Producers Award: Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston
Someone to Watch Award: “Newlyweeds,” Shake King
Truer Than Fiction Award: “Let the Fire Burn,” Jason Osder