"Peter Hujar's Day" Leads the Spirit Award Nominations

by Cláudio Alves

PETER HUJAR'S DAY, Ira Sachs | © Janus Films

In the past few years, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have come closer and closer to The Academy, taste-wise. For a while, it seemed like they were becoming another station of the cross on the long path to Oscar gold, a precursor like so many others. For those who loved these prizes for their independent spirit, such a state of affairs was… well, dispiriting. This year, there's been a notable course correction. In part, it's a change predicated on a season dominated by American big-budget studio fare and international productions – both ineligible here. Still, when Peter Hujar's Day by Ira Sachs is your nomination leader, you're clearly not trying to live in the shadow of Oscar. Instead, the Spirits are doing their own thing, and that's how it should be.

Come discover the full list of nominees, on both the film and TV front, plus some color commentary, after the jump…

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Winners of the 40th Independent Spirit Awards

by Nick Taylor

Last night, the 40th Indie Spirit Awards came and went. The SAG Awards could begin at any moment, meaning we'll have a better sense on whether certain wins here might reverberate into the Oscars next week. Even taking the Oscar-adjacency of several winners into consideration, this is a solid pack of winners, with a couple pleasant surprises along with some disappointing rubber-stamping. Here's the list of winners from this year's Indie Spirit Awards, with some delightful commentary from yours truly. If you want to go back and watch the show, Film Independent has uploaded the ceremony in its entirety on YouTube. Click here to watch it!...

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Indie Spirit Revue: "Good One"

by Nick Taylor

Good One is maybe my favorite film of the seven "Firsts" nominated at the Indie Spirits. India Donaldson's story of high school senior Sam (Lily Collias) going on an annual weekend camping trip in the Catskills with her dad, Chris (James LeGros), and his friend Matt (Danny McCarthy) could not be simpler to summarize. Yet, the wrinkles and intrigue she's put into this premise - both men are in their 50's, Chris is on his second marriage with a new baby at home while Matt is currently working through divorce proceedings - are thoughtfully integrated. We briefly meet friends and family of the soon-to-be-departed, and off we go…

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Indie Spirits Revue: “The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed”

by Nick Taylor

It took me a while to get caught up in this one, lemme tell you. One can argue whether Joanna Arnow's droll tone, disposition towards cringe comedy, and restrictive palettes in color and emoting is a sneakily incisive feat or a weird student-film misfire. For a film about a woman's exploration of various BDSM relationships while navigating a dead-end job and a stilted relationship with her family, The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed possesses no titillation or temperature spikes to make the audience more engaged…

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Indie Spirit Revue: "Problemista"

by Nick Taylor

As a fan of Julio Torres's work on SNL for years who's had only intermittent contact with his other ventures, I am so goddamn delighted by Problemista. Every loopy, queer, topical, cubist dimension to his art is so fruitfully deployed while allowing the colors and slashes of every single collaborator to shine as brightly as he does. As a showcase of singular, unpredictable comedic instincts, this beats almost every other 2024 film for mining laughs from all directions. Bizarre art objects, wry narration, ridiculous tableaus, fantasy costumes, goofy-ass behavior, incredible commitment to the bit from all sides. She's got it all…

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