Spirit Awards: ‘Past Lives’ Wins Best Feature And Best Director For Celine Song; Jeffrey Wright, ‘Beef’, ‘The Holdovers’ Among Multiple Winners – Full List

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The 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards are underway Sunday on the beach in Santa Monica, celebrating the year’s best in indie film and TV as the movie awards season hits its peak.

Check out Deadline’s live winners list below and keep checking back as more trophies are handed out.

Aidy Bryant is hosting this year, presiding over a ceremony that will crown the marquee Best Feature winner that will come from five nominees: A24’s Past LivesNetflix’s May December, Amazon MGM Studios’ American Fiction, Searchlight’s All of Us Strangers, Sony Pictures Classics’ We Grown Now and Mubi’s Passages.

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Celine Song won the Best Director award today for Past Lives, while American Fiction has won so far for Jeffrey Wright’s Lead Performance and Cord Jefferson for Best Screenplay. Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik won Best First Screenplay for May December.

Also today, fellow Oscar nominees Da’Vine Joy Randolph of The Holdovers won the Spirit for the gender-neutral category of Best Supporting Performance, Anatomy of a Fall won for Best International Film and Four Daughters won for Best Documentary.

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The Holdovers also won today for Breakthrough Performance (Dominic Sessa) and Cinematography (Eigil Bryld). It was among a handful of multi-winners that so far include The Last of Us, which won on the TV side for acting performances from Nick Offerman and Keivonn Montreal Woodard, and Beef, which has won for Best New Scripted Series and Ali Wong who topped even co-star Steven Yeun in the gender-neutral Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series category.

Today’s ceremony has at times been interrupted by a pro-Palestinian protester outside the event tent whose chants were audible during several speeches thanks to his use of the loudspeaker. Several speakers onstage noted the noise which has continued throughout.

RELATED: Spirit Awards Ceremony Disrupted By Pro-Palestinian Protester With A Loudspeaker

Last year at the Spirits, remember, Everything Everywhere All at Once stormed the beach and scored seven wins including Best Picture on its march to the Oscar Best Picture crown. This year, it’s Past Lives, May December and American Fiction that came in hot with five nominations each, with Song’s romantic drama and Jefferson’s stinging satire up in the equivalent category at the 2024 Oscars that take place March 10.

Here’s the full list of winners:

BEST FEATURE

 (Given to the producer)

Past Lives

Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE

Jeffrey Wright

American Fiction

BEST DIRECTOR

Celine Song

Past Lives

BEST FIRST FEATURE

(Award given to director and producer)

A Thousand and One

Director: A.V. Rockwell

Producers: Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, Brad Weston

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Dominic Sessa

The Holdovers

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

(Given to best feature made for under $1,000,000; award given to writer, director and producer)

Fremont

Director/Writer: Babak Jalali

Writer: Carolina Cavalli

Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, Laura Wagner

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Eigil Bryld

The Holdovers

BEST EDITING

Daniel Garber

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

(Given to the creator, executive producer, co-executive producer)

Beef

Creator/Executive Producer: Lee Sung Jin

Executive Producers: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, Alli Reich

Co-Executive Producers: Alice Ju, Carrie Kemper

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Ali Wong

Beef

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES

(Award given to creator, executive producer, co-executive producer)

Dear Mama

Executive Producers: Lasse Järvi, Quincy ‘QD3’ Jones III, Staci Robinson, Nelson George, Charles D. King, Peter Nelson, Adel ‘Future’ Nur, Jamal Joseph, Ted Skillman, Allen Hughes, Steve Berman, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, John Janick, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair

BEST SCREENPLAY

Cord Jefferson

American Fiction

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik

May December

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

(Given to the director)

Anatomy of a Fall

France

Director: Justine Triet

BEST BREAKTRHOUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Keivonn Montreal Woodard

The Last of Us

BEST DOCUMENTARY

 (Given to the director and producer)

Four Daughters

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Nick Offerman

The Last of Us

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Da’Vine Joy Randolph

The Holdovers

Previously Announced

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

(Presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition)

Set Hernandez

Director: Unseen

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

(Given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast)

Showing Up

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Casting Director: Gayle Keller

Ensemble Cast: André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez, Michelle Williams

PRODUCERS AWARD

(Honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films)

Monique Walton

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

(Recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition)

Monica Sorelle

Director: Mountains

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Jury Duty

Ensemble Cast: Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, James Marsden, Edy Modica, Kerry O’Neill, Rashida Olayiwola, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, Evan Williams

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