‘Spotlight’ leads Spirit Award winners; diversity takes center stage

The journalism drama which chronicles the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal also took the prize for Best Screenplay, Best Editing and the Robert Altman Award.

Whereas the Oscars are dealing with a second straight year of all-white acting nominees, the Spirit Awards – which celebrate films made for $20 million or less – have five non-white acting nominees out of 20.

A amusing line – and representative of the larger narratives that have emerged during this awards season, as the mostly-white Oscar nominations brought to the fore Hollywood’s diversity problem. Elba, Attah, and Taylor are all black; Taylor is the first transgender actress to ever win at the Spirit Awards.

The Netflix film “Beasts of No Nation”, about child soldiers in West Africa and starring a cast of black actors, took two awards, with teen newcomer Abraham Attah winning best actor and Britain’s Idris Elba winning best supporting actor. The Best Supporting Female award went to Mya Taylor, for Tangerine.

“There is transgender talent, there’s very attractive transgender talent”, she told the audience. “So, you better get it out there and put it in your next movie”, Taylor said in her acceptance speech.

“Spotlight” was the only best picture nominee up for the Spirits’ top award; the bigger budget Oscar favorites it’s seen as vying with, “The Revenant” and “The Big Short“, didn’t qualify for the Spirits.

It was screened at number of prestigious film festivals including Venice, BFI London and Toronto International Film Festival.

The lesbian romance Carol led the nominees last Saturday with six nods, but came away with only the best cinematography award.

He did not address the controversy, but speaking after his Independent Spirit win, he said: “I am so more proud of being a producer on this film, it wasn’t about my performance, it was about us as a team”.

Spotlight picked up the best film, director, screenplay and a special recognition for its ensemble cast. “The Look of Silence” was announced the best documentary.

The irreverent and breezy Spirit Awards, held in a tent on the Santa Monica beach, stood apart from the Oscars in other ways, too. When Emma Donoghue won Best First Screenplay for her adaptation of her own novel Room, she thanked her (female) partner of many years. But Heller marked her claim on Powley. Actress Cynthia Nixon arrives at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo attends the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 27, 2016 in Santa Monica, California. “That was so good”, Mara said to her director boyfriend Charlie McDowell.