There’s been more awards success for the multi-verse fantasy Everything Everywhere All At Once, which has scooped many of the major prizes at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Michelle Yeoh was named the best leading performer, with her co-star Ke Huy Quan collecting the supporting prize – in new gender neutral categories. Another co-star, Stephanie Hsu won the award for the Best Breakthrough Performance.
The film also won Best Feature, Best Editing and the directing and writing prizes for the winning partnership, known as The Daniels, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
Other features to get prizes included Tár for cinematography and Women Talking, which won the Robert Altman Award, recognising the work of the director and ensemble cast.
The Spirit Awards also try honour film-makers earlier in their careers, with the Scottish auteur Charlotte Wells winning the Best First Feature prize for her British father-daughter drama Aftersun. John Patton Ford took the Best First Screenplay award for Emily the Criminal.
Pakistan’s Joyland won the International award. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, about America’s opioid crisis, was named the Best Documentary.
Honouring lower budget films and with the voting pool coming from the membership of the Film Independent organisation, winners of the Spirit Awards aren’t seen as reliable indicators for the upcoming Oscars, but with more smaller films being recognised by the Academy, the party on the Santa Monica beach is a good opportunity for many of the Oscar nominees to be seen in public ahead of the biggest day in the film calendar.
The Spirits have only recently started recognising TV too. This year’s main beneficiaries included The Bear, Abbott Elementary, The Rehearsal and Pachinko.