“Birdman” Wins At The Film Independent Spirit Awards
Comedy ruled the best film category at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. “Birdman” took home the top honor of Best Feature at the tented awards show. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s dark comedy beat out fellow independent feature nominees, “Boyhood”, “Selma”, “Whiplash” and “Love Is Strange”. Iñárritu was also nominated for Best Director, however that Spirit Award went to the director of “Boyhood”, Richard Linklater. Emmanuel Lubezki also took home a bird trophy for “Birdman” when he won the award for Best Cinematography.
Showing how casual the Film Independent Spirit Awards really are, Alejandro G. Iñárritu accepts the Best Feature award for “Birdman” in a hoodie.
On his way to Oscar night on Sunday, Michael Keaton picked up one more award. He won the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his role of Riggan Thomson, the has-been aging star of the blockbuster “Birdman” super hero movie franchise, who is trying to salvage his dignity, reputation and career by writing, directing, and starring in a new Broadway production. Michael Keaton made sure to thank a higher power for everyone in the tent, the Greek myth Narcissus.
“Birdman” heads to the Academy Awards with 9 nominations Sunday night.
Co-hosts for the 30th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell opened the ceremony with a parody of “Birdman”. Michael Keaton mentioned it in his acceptance speech and wondered if he had been miscast in the film and if Armisen would have been a better choice. The parody followed Birdman’s tracking shot premise which led Armisen to Kristen Bell who complained about the liquored up crowd that attends the Spirit Awards held in a “circus tent”. The non-stop drumming during the opening led to some “Whiplash” type slaps before the hosts made it to the stage.
Other comedy winners at the Film Independent Spirit Awards included Justin Simien who won the award for Best First Screenplay for his satirical film “Dear White People”. His film focuses on the strain of race relations on black students at a predominantly white university. Simien accepted the award saying he hopes to see more diversity in filmmaking.
The Robert Altman Award which is the Spirit Award presented to one film’s director, casting director and its entire ensemble cast, went to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice”. Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, it’s the story of pothead P.I. Larry “Doc” Sportello played by Joaquin Phoenix, who investigates the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend who had revealed a plot to him against her new billionaire boyfriend. The Spirit Award winning cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Eric Roberts, Katherine Waterson, Josh Brolin, Michael K. Williams, Maya Rudolph, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Serena Scott Adams, Martin Donovan, Joanna Newsom, Sasha Pieterse, Jena Malone, Hong Chau and Martin Short. Also accepting the Robert Altman Award was director PT Anderson and casting director Cassandra Kulukundis.
Paul Thomas Anderson thanked everyone but American Airlines during his NSFW acceptance speech found at hollywoodreporter.com.
This was the Film Independent Spirit Awards 30th anniversary of celebrating and honoring independent filmmaking.
