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.
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