The Indie Spirits have never shut out women, and this year was no different. How did women fare at this year’s awards? Let’s find out.
It was a refrain spoken throughout the blue carpet at the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards: it’s an awards show that’s never shut out women. Since 1985, the Independent Spirit Awards have regularly nominated women directors, as well as women in other below-the-line categories, when the Academy was still struggling to include them in the show at all. But watching the Indie Spirits this year was amazing as it was a true celebration of women, even when they weren’t winning.
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 23: (L-R) Aubrey Plaza and Dakota Johnson speak during the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Aubrey Plaza’s hosting
Aubrey Plaza was always going to be a fantastic host, particularly as she’s known for telling it straight. Her pre-recorded open was a biting critique of how impossible it is to be a woman looking for a hosting gig. The inclusion of older actresses like Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Ricci, and Sharon Stone was an additional sly nod at the male-dominated creation of sex symbols and how older women practically reduce themselves to virgin sacrifices to be taken seriously. Everything about Plaza’s performance was funny and charming, from sitting in Dakota Johnson’s lap to a Fyre Festival-inspired short film that showed Plaza’s penchant for berating people. Women are messy and complicated, none more so than Plaza and watching her command the stage like a boss gave us everything we needed.
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 23: Glenn Close attends the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Glenn Close and Regina King
Watching these two powerful women finally get the recognition they’ve always rightfully deserved this season has been fantastic. But at the Indie Spirits, an awards body that was honoring talented women left and right, that appreciation was increased tenfold. Glenn Close won the Best Female Lead award for The Wife, a role that’s probably going to nab her the Oscar, and she stole the show with her adorable dog, Pippin, alongside her. Regina King also won Best Supporting Female for If Beale Street Could Talk (she’ll also be winning the Oscar tonight). Each actress has cultivated a slew of credits in film, television, and the stage, putting in the work for several decades and dammit it’s time to give them all the awards.
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 23: Debra Granik accepts the Bonnie Award onstage during the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
Debra Granik and the Best Directing slate
I’ve talked about it in a few different articles but it bears repeating: this year, at the Indie Spirit Awards, three out of the five Best Directing nominees were women. That’s never. ever. happened at the Oscars. And this year it was hard to decide whether to root for eventual winner Barry Jenkins, Debra Granik, Tamara Jenkins, or Lynne Ramsay, and that’s what EVERY awards season slate should look like.
At the same time the Bonnie Award recipient this year was Granik, director of Leave No Trace. The Bonnie Award was inspired by the first female pilot of American Airlines and seeks to honor a female filmmaker whose work is shaking up the industry. Granik was extremely humble upon receiving the award — a trait that continued in the press room and on the red carpet. Honoring women for their accomplishments is amazing to see and congrats to the Indie Spirit Awards for making the night about amazing female filmmakers.
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 23: (L-R) Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty accept Best Screenplay for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” onstage during the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
Nicole Holofcener’s Best Screenplay win
This year’s Best Screenplay winners were Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, writers of the Melissa McCarthy drama, Can You Ever Forgive Me? The fact that the movie was criminally unrecognized at this year’s Oscars wasn’t lost on Holofcener, who invited the film’s director, Marielle Heller, to come on-stage with her and share in the award. Later, in the pressroom, Holofcener alluded to the misguided idea that a movie nominated for its stars and script doesn’t need to have a directing nod. Those elements wouldn’t be without the director, so to ignore Heller yet praise stars like McCarthy and Richard E. Grant is ridiculous.
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 23: Barry Jenkins accepts the Best Director award for ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ onstage during the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Barry Jenkins’ pledge
Jenkins won Best Director as well as Best Feature and he took the time to honor all the women nominated in the category, vowing that this award was as much for them as for him. At the same time, he pledged to commit himself to uplifting more female voices and urged Hollywood to do the same. This goes along with his Beale Street actress, Regina King’s, pledge to have her sets be more inclusive environments. It’s pledges like Jenkins, King’s, and last year’s Frances McDormand’s that will turn the tide on gender equality in Hollywood. Hearing Jenkins espouse so much pride for his fellow nominees showed that the Indie Spirits are about camaraderie, not competition.