The 2024 awards season just keeps rolling on. The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards were held at Santa Monica Pier in California on Sunday, hot on the heels of the Screen Actors Guild Awards the evening prior. However, this year’s awards were a little different. Rather than just celebrate independent films and filmmakers, the 2024 Spirit Awards also recognised achievements in television — only the fourth time this özgü happened in the awards’ almost 40-year history.
Beef took two of these rare television awards, namely Best New Scripted Series and Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series for Ali Wong. Meanwhile, The Last Of Us‘ Nick Offerman picked up Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series for his performance in the series’ heart-wrenching third episode. Comedy series Jury Duty was a shoo-in for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series, because it was also the only nominee.
Despite the Spirit Awards’ foray into television, the evening was still dominated by film. Past Lives, American Fiction, and May December led the nominations with five each, but it was The Holdovers that came out on top, winning three of the four categories in which it was nominated. The others didn’t leave empty handed, though. Past Lives scooped up some big awards, taking both Best Feature and Best Director, while American Fiction won Best Lead Performance and Best Screenplay, and May December was awarded Best First Screenplay.
Here is the full list of nominees and winners from the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Winners in each category have been bolded. You can catch up with the awards ceremony on Film Independent’s YouTube channel.
Best Feature
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All of Us Strangers (Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, and Sarah Harvey)
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American Fiction (Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, and Ben LeClair)
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May December (Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, and Christine Vachon)
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Passages (Producers: Michel Merkt and Saïd Ben Saïd)
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Past Lives (Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, and Christine Vachon)
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We Grown Now (Producers: Minhal Baig and Joe Pirro)
Best First Feature
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All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Director: Raven Jackson; Producers: Maria Altamirano, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins, and Adele Romanski)
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Chronicles of a Wandering Saint (Director: Tomás Gómez Bustillo; Producers: Gewan Brown and Amanda Freedman)
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Earth Mama (Director/Producer: Savanah Leaf; Producers: Sam Bisbee, Shirley O’Connor, Medb Riordan, and Cody Ryder)
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A Thousand and One (Director: A.V. Rockwell; Producers: Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, and Brad Weston)
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Upon Entry (Directors: Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez; Producers: Sergio Adrià, Carlos Juárez, Alba Sotorra, Carles Torras, and Xosé Zapata)
John Cassavetes Award
Honours the best feature made with a budget of under $1 million.
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The Artifice Girl (Director/Writer: Franklin Ritch; Producers: Aaron B. Koontz and Ashleigh Snead)
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Cadejo Blanco (Director/Writer/Producer: Justin Lerner; Producers: Mauricio Escobar, Ryan Friedkin, and Jack Patrick Hurley)
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Fremont (Director/Writer: Babak Jalali; Writer: Carolina Cavalli; Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, and Laura Wagner)
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Rotting in the Sun (Director/Writer: Sebastián Silva; Writer: Pedro Peirano; Producer: Jacob Wasserman)
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The Unknown Country (Director/Writer/Producer: Morrisa Maltz; Writer: Lily Gladstone; Writers/Producers: Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, and Vanara Taing; Producers: Katherine Harper, Laura Heberton, and Tommy Heitkamp)
Best Director
Best Screenplay
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David Hemingson (The Holdovers)
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Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)
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Laura Moss and Brendan J. O’Brien (Birth/Rebirth)
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Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott (Bottoms)
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Celine Song (Past Lives)
Best First Screenplay
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Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik (May December)
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Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Ben Platt (Theater Camp)
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Tomás Gómez Bustillo (Chronicles of a Wandering Saint)
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Laurel Parmet (The Starling Girl)
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Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez (Upon Entry)
Best Lead Performance
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Jessica Chastain (Memory)
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Greta Lee (Past Lives)
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Trace Lysette (Monica)
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Natalie Portman (May December)
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Judy Reyes (Birth/Rebirth)
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Franz Rogowski (Passages)
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Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers)
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Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One)
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Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
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Teo Yoo (Past Lives)
Best Supporting Performance
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Erika Alexander (American Fiction)
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Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
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Noah Galvin (Theater Camp)
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Anne Hathaway (Eileen)
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Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry)
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Marin Ireland (Eileen)
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Charles Melton (May December)
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Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
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Catalina Saavedra (Rotting in the Sun)
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Ben Whishaw (Passages)
Best Breakthrough Performance
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Marshawn Lynch (Bottoms)
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Atibon Nazaire (Mountains)
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Tia Nomore (Earth Mama)
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Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers)
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Anaita Walizada (Fremont)
Best Cinematography
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Katelin Arizmendi (Monica)
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Eigil Bryld (The Holdovers)
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Jomo Fray (All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt)
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Pablo Lozano (Chronicles of a Wandering Saint)
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Pat Scola (We Grown Now)
Best Editing
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Santiago Cendejas, Gabriel Díaz, and Sofía Subercaseaux (Rotting in the Sun)
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Stephanie Filo (We Grown Now)
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Daniel Garber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline)
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Jon Philpot (Theater Camp)
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Emanuele Tiziani (Upon Entry)
Robert Altman Award
Honours one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast.
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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, and Michelle Williams)
Best Documentary
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Bye Bye Tiberias (Director: Lina Soualem; Producer: Jean-Marie Nizan)
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Four Daughters (Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha)
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Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Directors/Producers: Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson; Producer: Tommy Oliver)
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Kokomo City (Director: D. Smith; Producers: Bill Butler and Harris Doran)
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The Mother of All Lies (Director/Producer: Asmae El Moudir)
Best International Film
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Anatomy of a Fall (France; Director: Justine Triet)
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Godland (Denmark/Iceland; Director: Hlynur Pálmason)
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Mami Wata (Nigeria; Director: C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi)
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Tótem (Mexico; Director: Lila Avilés)
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The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom, Poland, USA; Director: Jonathan Glazer)
Producers Award
Honours an emerging producer that özgü demonstrated the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films despite limited resources.
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Rachael Fung
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Graham Swon
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Monique Walton
Someone to Watch Award
Honours a filmmaker of singular vision who özgü not yet received appropriate recognition.
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Joanna Arnow (The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Özgü Passed)
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Laura Moss (Birth/Rebirth)
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Monica Sorelle (Mountains)
Truer Than Fiction Award
Honours an emerging director of non-fiction features who özgü not yet received significant recognition.
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
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Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court (Executive Producers: Vinnie Malhotra, Aaron Saidman, Eli Holzman, and Dawn Porter)
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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, and Nigel Sinclair)
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Murder in Big Horn (Executive Producers: Matthew Galkin, Vinnie Malhotra
Co-Executive Producers: Lisa Kalikow, and Joshua Levine) -
Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence (Executive Producers: Mindy Goldberg, Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin, Zach Heinzerling, Krista Parris, Daniel Barban Levin, and Felicia Rosario; Co-Executive Producer: Julie Gaither)
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Wrestlers (Executive Producers: Greg Whiteley and Ryan O’Dowd; Co-Executive Producers: Alejandro Melendez and Adam Leibowitz)
Best New Scripted Series
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Beef (Creator/Executive Producer: Lee Sung Jin; Executive Producers: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, and Alli Reich; Co-Executive Producers: Alice Ju and Carrie Kemper)
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Dreaming Whilst Black (Creator/Executive Producer: Adjani Salmon; Creators: Maximilian Evans, Natasha Jatania, and Laura Seixas; Executive Producers: Tanya Qureshi, Dhanny Joshi, Bal Samra, and Thomas Stogdon)
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I’m a Virgo (Creator/Executive Producer: Boots Riley; Executive Producers: Tze Chun, Michael Ellenberg, Lindsey Springer, Jharrel Jerome, and Rebecca Rivo; Co-Executive Producers: Marcus Gardley and Carver Karaszewski)
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Jury Duty (Creators/Executive Producers: Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky; Executive Producers: David Bernad, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Cody Heller, Todd Schulman, Jake Szymanski, and Andrew Weinberg)
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Slip (Creator/Executive Producer: Zoe Lister-Jones; Executive Producers: Ro Donnelly, Dakota Johnson, Katie O’Connell Marsh, David Fortier, and Ivan Schneeberg)
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series
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Emma Corrin (A Murder at the End of the World)
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Dominique Fishback (Swarm)
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Betty Gilpin (Mrs. Davis)
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Jharrel Jerome (I’m a Virgo)
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Zoe Lister-Jones (Slip)
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Bel Powley (A Small Light)
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Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us)
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Ramón Rodríguez (Will Trent)
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Ali Wong (Beef)
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Steven Yeun (Beef)
Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series
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Murray Bartlett (The Last of Us)
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Billie Eilish (Swarm)
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Jack Farthing (Rain Dogs)
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Nick Offerman (The Last of Us)
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Adina Porter (The Changeling)
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Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry)
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Benny Safdie (The Curse)
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Luke Tennie (Shrinking)
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Olivia Washington (I’m a Virgo)
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Jessica Williams (Shrinking)
Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series
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Clark Backo (The Changeling)
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Aria Mia Loberti (All the Light We Cannot See)
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Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black)
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Keivonn Montreal Woodard (The Last of Us)
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Kara Young (I’m a Virgo)
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
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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, and Evan Williams)