Should we worry about an awards show whose host tells us at the start of the show that awards shows are dead and no one saw the nominated movies?
That was the challenge launched by Hasan Minhaj at the start of Saturday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards in a monologue that pulled no punches in its scathing look at Hollywood. But voters did their best to say “not so fast, dude” by handing out a slew of awards to the movie that was seen by more people than any other nominee, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
The film has grossed over $100 million at the box office and appears to be on an unstoppable streak until next weekend’s Oscars ceremony. That made him a clear leader heading into an evening ceremony that has developed a taste for the highest-profile and most likely Oscar nominees.
Once upon a time, say, about 30 years ago, the Spirit Awards specialized in independent alternatives to the main Oscar choices: “Sex, Lies and Videotape” instead of “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Pulp Fiction” instead of “Forest”. Gump”, “Fargo” instead of “The English Patient”, “Lost in Translation” instead of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”…
But starting in 2011, when “The Artist” became the first Spirit Award winner in 25 years to also win the Best Picture Oscar (the first and only other was “Platoon” in 1986), the Spirit Awards have been for the Oscar winner. (“12 Years a Slave”, “Birdman”, “Spotlight”, “Moonlight”, “Nomadland”) or the closest thing they could find (“Silver Lining Playbook”, “Get Out”, “The Lost Daughter”).
This year, even though the nominees also included fellow Oscar contenders “Talking Women” and “Tár,” “Everything Everywhere” was clearly the film with all the Oscar heat at the Spirit Awards. And so, when Ke Huy Quan won the show’s top prize for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and the room erupted in support of this awards season’s happiest and most beloved winner, it was clearly only a matter of time (a little more than two hours) until “Everything Everywhere” ended the show by winning the final award, Best Picture.
In between, the film didn’t lose in any of the seven categories in which it was nominated. He won for screenplay, editing, and breakthrough actress (Stephanie Hsu), and then, down the stretch, director and lead performer. At one point, when the show’s producers chose “Everything Everywhere” co-star Jamie Lee Curtis to present the award for Best Screenplay, which went to her own film, it was almost as if Film Independent were conceding in advance that the afternoon would belong to that movie. .
It was a Spirit Awards that was almost completely predictable, and also energetic, given that, as Minhaj pointed out in his monologue, IFC refused to accept the contract to televise the show. That made it a live-streamed event, which meant there were no commercials or breaks during which Spirit Awards attendees would normally mingle and work in the room.
Perhaps that’s the new normal, as one awards show after another loses its TV contract: The SAG Awards went live this year, the Golden Globes returned to NBC for a year, and are now up for grabs and, as he noted Minhaj, the Independent Film Channel refused to televise the independent film awards.
The host, with his tongue at least partially in cheek, made it sound like he was a disaster for the Spirit Awards and for independent film. And perhaps, when combined with the fact that this year’s ceremony simply jumped on the “Everything Everywhere” bandwagon, the show felt less self-contained than it should.
On the other hand, should we argue with the Spirit Awards for agreeing with almost every other awards body, and moviegoers, on this year’s best independent film? Probably not. Also, if your host starts the show by saying that no one has seen any of these movies, you’d be smart to prove him wrong with first prize, last prize, and many prizes in between.
