Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' won Best Feature

Culture
Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' won Best Feature
Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' won Best Feature at the 36th Independent Spirit Awards in a ceremony that turned the gross annual beach soiree into a virtual, mostly pre-taped event, and, possibly, an Oscar preview.The Spirits, usually in a giant tent on the Southern California coast, have sometimes been a relaxed dress rehearsal for the Academy Awards.

'Moonlight', 'Spotlight', 'Birdman' and '12 Years a Slave' all won at the Spirits before taking Best Picture at the Oscars the very next day, though top winners ('The Farewell' won the Spirits' top prize in 2020) have diverged the previous few years. But many of the same contenders overlapped this season, including 'Minari', 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', 'Promising Young Woman' and 'Sound of Metal'.

And 'Nomadland' has been on a steady march to the Oscars. The film's Spirit win follows others at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the producers guild and the directors guild. Zhao also won Best Director Thursday at the Spirits, an honour she's heavily favoured to win at the Academy Awards. It was a fitting victory for Zhao's modest drama about rootlessness and community in the American West. 3 years earlier on your day of the Spirit Awards, Zhao and Frances McDormand first met to go over the project.

Most of the other Oscar nominees went house with Spirit awards, too. Yuh-Jung Youn, the Academy Awards favourite, won Best Supporting Female Actor for 'Minari'. Paul Raci, the 72-year-old veteran working actor who's assimilated his moment in sunlight, won Best Supporting Male Actor for 'Sound of Metal'. Emerald Fennell, the writer-director, of 'Promising Young Woman', took Best Screenplay.

In a single twist, Best Male Lead Actor visited Riz Ahmed for his performance in 'Sound of Metal' - an award which has usually gone this season to the late Chadwick Boseman for his final performance in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'.Carey Mulligan ('Promising Young Woman') took Best Lead female actor in the category that's perhaps most shared at the Academy Awards. Previous awards have already been split between Viola Davis ('Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'), McDormand and Mulligan.

Placed on by the nonprofit Independent Film, the Spirits were hosted by Melissa Villasenor of 'Saturday Night Live' and broadcast Thursday night on IFC. Independent Film did everything it might to virtually mimic the knowledge of the awards, including grouping Zoomed-in attendees by table, featuring virtual wine and bourbon bars and hosting a karaoke afterparty. Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, called it "the first ever pants-optional Spirit Awards."

The nominees were especially diverse. None of the best feature nominees - 'Nomadland', 'Minari', 'First Cow', 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' - were directed by white men. All of the directing nominees - Zhao, Fennell, Eliza Hittman ('Never Rarely Sometimes Always'), Kelly Reichardt ('First Cow') and Lee Isaac Chung ('Minari') - were women or persons of colour.

Nominees at the Spirits, the premier independent film awards, have to be made for less than $22.5 million. The Robert Altman Award, an honour for a film's ensemble, visited Regina King's feature film directorial debut "One Night in Miami," the fictional account of a 1960s meeting of Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown. The disability rights movement documentary "Crip Camp" won Best Documentary. Best First Film visited Darius Marder's 'Sound of Metal'.
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