The Farewell is Independent Spirits Best Feature

Sandler and Zellweger win acting awards

by Jennie Kermode

Best Feature winner The Farewell
Best Feature winner The Farewell

The Independent Spirit Awards have once again taken an independent direction, showing support for the underdogs in this year's awards race. Lulu Wang was over the moon when her film The Farewell took Best Feature. She used her speech to call out the idea that women need encouragement to make films, saying that in fact what they need is to be hired.

Uncut Gems was the night's other big winner, taking Best Director for Benny and Josh Safdie and Best Actor for Adam Sandler. In a speech that delighted the audience, Sandler compared being snubbed by the Oscars as being left out of the Best Looking category in his high school yearbook but winning Best Personality instead.

Those awards in full:-

Best Feature

Best Director

Best Female Lead

  • Renée Zellweger, Judy

Best Male Lead

Best Supporting Female

Best Supporting Male

Best Screenplay

Best Editing

Best Documentary Feature

Best Cinematography

Best First Feature

Best First Screenplay

  • Fredrica Bailey, Stefon Bristol, See You Yesterday

John Cassavetes Award

Robert Altman Award

Best International Film

Producers Award

  • Mollye Asher

Someone to Watch Award

  • Rashaad Ernesto Green, Premature

Truer than Fiction award

  • Nadia Shihab, Jaddoland

Bonnie Award

  • Kelly Reichardt

Share this with others on...
News

A taste of power Andrew Neel on ordinary life under totalitarianism and How To Feed A Dictator

Rock star spirit Shane Belcourt on Louis Cameron and Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising

Heir presumptive Rob Rice on the power of comedy, political disappointments and Ponderosa

Keeping the rhythm Hugo Ruíz on storytelling techniques, kinky cinema and Dante

From personal to universal Karla Murthy on The Gas Station Attendant and her relationship with her dad

Family reunion Tasha Hubbard on exploring the aftermath of the Sixties Scoop in Meadowlarks

More news and features

We're bringing you news, reviews and more from Sheffield DocFest, ImagineNative and Tribeca.



We're looking forward to Docs Ireland and the Fantasia International Film Festival.



We've recently brought you coverage of Cannes, Queer East, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Visions du Réel, Fantaspoa, Overlook, BFI Flare and SXSW, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival and the NY Rendezvous with French Cinema.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

Don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.


It's a busy time for festivals and here's the latest:


The Evia Project Event returns for a 5th year with focus on the forest


DocFest Winners announced


Tribeca Awards announced


Karlovy Vary 60th anniversary edition to feature Jesse Eisenberg and Maggie Gyllenhaal as guests


Fantasia Second wave of titles announced