Recapping the 2021 Indie Spirit Awards

By Dan Skip Allen

The Film Independent Spirit Awards are a little different than other awards shows. The awarded films have been made for under 30 million dollars. These are considered independent films in the film industry. Usually, they are made with money from donations and not big studios such as Disney, Warner Brothers, or Universal Pictures. A24 and Amazon are companies that buy up small movies and release them under their labels. These small films are the ones that get nominated for Indie Spirit awards.

A lot of the Indie Spirit awards don't translate to the academy awards because they aren't compatible with the Academy Awards categories. And sometimes people are nominated for Indie Spirit awards and vice versa for Oscars that don't have a crossover. There are a handful of categories that do crossover though. These could give some clues on what the Academy Awards might do come Sunday night. 

The Best Lead Actress Award went to Carey Mulligan which is a good precursor because both Viola Davis and Frances McDormand were nominated beside her in that category. Riz Ahmed won the Best Lead Actor award. This was interesting because Chadwick Boseman was also nominated with him and he had previously won all the similar awards leading up to this point in awards season. Steven Yeun was also nominated in this category.

The two supporting actor awards went to Youn Juh-Yung and Paul Raci. This is the third award of this caliber Yuh-Yung won this awards season, making her the odds on favorite to win the Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. Paul Raci's win just proves the Indie Spirit voters loved Sound of Metal because it won both male acting awards. This may not translate into Oscar wins, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

Nomadland once again swept the best feature and director categories at another award show making a sure bet to win both categories at the Oscars. It also added the best cinematography and editing. These two categories will be two to watch because they could go to other films. My bet would be Nomadland wins cinematography, but not editing. That could go to Sound of Metal or The Trial of the Chicago 7. 

The screenplay awards went to Promising Young Woman and Palm Springs. This may be the award that put that film and its writer/director Emerald Fennel. Sound of Metal also won the first feature for its director Darius Marder.

Quo Vadis Aida? won the Best International feature, but Another Round wasn't nominated in this category, so this probably won't happen at the Oscars. Another Round has won this award everywhere leading up to this point. Crip Camp won the best documentary in a category that had four of the five Academy Award nominees in it, but not My Octopus Teacher. That could be a telling sign of why it won.

The Indie Spirit Awards were like a lot of the other ceremonies. They got a lot right and some things wrong based on industry pundits and predictions people have been making. They usually award films that aren't involved in the academy awards as a whole. This year is different because there are so many indies nominated. This year some of its winners make more sense and could come home with Oscars. This is the last awards ceremony before the Academy Awards broadcast on April 25th. All will be revealed on Sunday night on ABC.