Ahead of its run at the Oscars, Birdman spread its wings at the 30th Independent Film Spirit Awards, winning best picture, best actor for Michael Keaton and best cinematography.
The elegantly stitched together backstage comedy came away the big winner at the annual pre-Oscars afternoon celebration of independent film on Saturday. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman won over what many consider its stiffest competition, the 12-years-in-the-making Boyhood, though that film’s maker, Richard Linklater, still took the directing honor.
As Hollywood has increasingly devoted itself to global blockbusters, the Spirit Awards — once a casual indie appetizer to the Oscars — feels more like the center of the industry, or at least a more idealized version of it.
Set in a beachside tent in Santa Monica the day before the Academy Awards are held across town, the Spirits — broadcast live this year for the first time — variously boasted of growing prominence and of preserving a way of movie-making often regarded as obsolete at the studios.
“We are threatened to become a species in extinction,” Inarritu said as he accepted the best feature award.
However, the blur between the Spirit Awards and the Oscars, despite their vastly different dress codes, is nearly complete. Last year’s acting Spirit winners all mirrored the next day’s Oscar winners, and 12 Years a Slave triumphed at both ceremonies.
The same could be true this year, where Oscar front-runners Julianne Moore (Still Alice), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) all won Spirit Awards.
Backstage, Redmayne’s chief rival, Keaton, basked in the final glow of a lengthy awards season.
“I’ll be in the fetal position bawling three months from now, missing it,” an exuberant Keaton said.
Before Birdman, the 63-year-old veteran actor had never been nominated for an Oscar.
Even if the Spirit Awards can feel more like an Academy Awards dress rehearsal, they still seek to highlight films that often struggle to get made or to find distribution.
“We made this movie in 23 days for [US]$4 million,” Moore said of the Alzheimer’s disease drama Still Alice. “I brought my own bras and my own food. I begged my friend Alec Baldwin to do it.”
Nightcrawler, the dark Los Angeles noir, won two Spirit Awards: best first feature for Dan Gilroy, as well as best screenplay for his script.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese