Arguably the biggest surprise at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards was the small but loud protest over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war outside the ceremony, the chants from which could be heard inside the tent in Santa Monica and on the livestream on Film Independent’s YouTube channel.
The demonstration was the first to disrupt a major awards show this season.
But as host Aidy Bryant and presenters and winners forged ahead with the ceremony, some acknowledging the protest, there were still some surprises in terms of which films won which awards — or didn’t win.
After seemingly losing its awards momentum with the Screen Actors Guild and Oscar nominations last month, May December could’ve had a big day at the Spirit Awards, as the Todd Haynes film, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, was up for five awards, the same number of nominations received by best feature and director winner Past Lives and best screenplay and lead performance winner American Fiction.
But May December won only one award, in the best first screenplay category, for writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. Still, Portman and co-star and fellow Spirit Awards nominee Charles Melton did have a couple of humorous exchanges with Bryant early in the ceremony.
American Fiction star Jeffrey Wright also surprised with his win over a number of big names including Portman, Greta Lee (Past Lives), Jessica Chastain (Memory) and Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers).
There were a number of top film nominees at the 2024 Spirit Awards that went home empty handed.
Passages, which got an early shoutout in Bryant’s monologue, was shut out despite four nominations. Similarly, high-profile awards hopeful All of Us Strangers, which failed to receive an Oscar nomination last month, was up for three awards but didn’t win.
The following triple nominees also all failed to win on Sunday: Theater Camp, We Grown Now, Rotting in the Sun, Upon Entry, Birth/Rebirth (though one of those awards was the Someone to Watch prize handed out last month), Chronicles of a Wandering Saint and Eileen (though it was nominated twice in the supporting category).
On the TV side, the acclaimed I’m a Virgo went into the Spirit Awards with four nominations, the same as double winner The Last of Us, but surprisingly failed to win any of the awards for which it was nominated.
