Tag: awards

The 2024 awards season is officially in full swing, with back to back to back star-studded events dominating this first weekend in January. On Saturday the world of independent film gathered at Hotel Casa del Mar for the annual Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch.

Given the organization’s focus on fostering creative independence with not-blockbuster budgets (Spirit Awards honor films with a budget of no more than $30 million) the vibe at the event and among this year’s nominees was warm and welcoming.

“It’s a celebration of our industry in its purest form,” said American Fiction star and nominee Jeffrey Wright. “Our film we shot in 26 days, we didn’t have a lot of resources. So we feel at home here.” American Fiction is nominated for five Spirit Awards, including best lead performance for Wright, and the ceremony holds a special place in his film industry memories.

“I’ve had some great experiences here. The first time I came was with Basquiat in 1996 and a film that was also being honored was When We Were Kings – I met Muhammad Ali at the Independent Spirit Awards in 1996, so that was the beginning of a wonderful relationship for me. So yeah, this place is special.”

Two first-time nominees, Franz Rogowski of Passages, and Zoe Lister-Jones of the series Slip, also enjoyed the positive vibes in the room and meeting fellow indie performers and filmmakers.

“It’s wonderful to be here and overwhelming,” said rising German star Rogowski. “Somehow I feel like I’m at the center of the film industry and at the same time, it’s so different from what I know from Europe and it’s wonderful to get to see all these different nuances. We have a lot of great movies this year competing and it’s just a joy to be a part of it.”

Lister-Jones reveled in an opportunity to meet Past Lives director Celine Song, a double nominee for best screenplay and director.

“Celine Song, we met on the red carpet and I like fanned out,” she admitted. “Past Lives is just, I’m just so floored by her. She’s the best, amazing.” Lister-Jones called the Spirit Awards “Mecca for those of us who are making things outside of the studio system,” she said. “Making any piece of art is a harrowing endeavor, but making things independently, I do think it keeps the lifeblood of our community flowing and Film Independent is so foundational in that.”

The brunch’s main event was the announcement of the organization’s three Emerging Filmmaker Awards and $25k grants presented to: Mountains director Monica Sorelle, director Set Hernandez for unseen, and to producer Monique Walton. The awards were presented by past nominees Lily Gladstone, who is also Honorary Chair of the 2024 Spirit Awards, and Colman Domingo. Both actors are in the awards race this year for films that were not Spirits eligible — Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Domingo for Rustin. Domingo was at the Toronto International Film Festival last September with two films, one of which gave him a special connection with Sorelle.

“We worked on a film called Sing Sing together, it comes out next year, A24 picked it up. But there’s something that she did that I think is special and it talks about the spirit of making an independent film with her and writer Clint Bentley and [director] Greg [Kwedar],” Domingo explained. “They made sure that the way we built the model of the film was to make sure that it was equitable, above and below the line. That means every single person on our film set participates in the success of it,” which received enthusiastic applause from the audience and a “Hell, yes!” from co-presenter Gladstone. “I say that because it’s in this room in particular where we’re able to change the model of the way work gets done, the way that we’re all seen, the way that we all feel valued,” Domingo continued. We do that here.”

Given how dramatically the group’s voting body has changed in recent years, predicting the Golden Globes winners—as we attempted to do this week—is even harder than it used to be, back when things could happen like Paul Giamatti winning for a film called Barney’s Version. The 2024 Golden Globe nominees may be a little less out there than we used to expect from the Globes, but in many categories that doesn’t make the winner any easier to predict. After all, this is the first televised awards show of the season, and the first non-critics group to weigh in. Anything, in theory, is possible!

Jo Koy was “literally sitting on 10 days’ notice.” With barely more than a week to prepare for his job hosting the Golden Globes on January 7, as opposed to the months he says hosts usually get, the comedian was under the gun for his first awards hosting gig.

“And I don’t care. I love it,” he promises. “I’m feeling overwhelmed, nervous, excited, pressure, and I’m not complaining. I’ve been granted a beautiful opportunity, I’m going to seize the moment and enjoy it.”

The comedian, best known for his four Netflix comedy specials and his many appearances on Chelsea Lately, as well as starring in last year’s studio comedy Easter Sunday, says the Globes hosting gig has presented him with several new challenges.

“I’ve never written this many jokes before in my life,” he admits. “I’ve got six specials under my belt right now, but this is the most joke-writing I’ve done, and it’s a style that I’ve never [done]. This is all new, doing a host-style monologue, yet still giving it my tone and my voice. It’s been challenging, but, man, we’re having a blast. And we’re knocking this monologue out.”

Since the news was announced December 21, Koy says, he’s received an outpouring of love and support from fans, friends, and unsolicited yet very welcome advice from fellow comedians.

“The most amazing thing is that I’m getting unsolicited help from people that I admire,” he says. “Like Seth Meyers getting on the phone with me and telling me certain things that he felt about the Golden Globes—that he had nervous energy going in, and that he didn’t go out during New Year’s Eve. I told him, ‘I’m not going out New Year’s Eve.’ He goes, ‘Neither did I.’ And to hear that from him made me feel good, like, Okay, then. This is a normal feeling. It’s not me. He had it too, and this guy’s got his own talk show.”

“And getting a call from Chris Rock, we were talking for, like, an hour,” Koy continues. Rock, who is also nominated at the Golden Globes in one of two new categories, best performance in a stand-up special, is a two-time Oscar host. “He’s telling me things like, ‘F–k the wardrobe change. Don’t worry about your outfit. Worry about the show. Watch the show. That way you’re prepared, if something happens, you’re ready. You don’t want to be in the back in the room changing your outfit, and you’re like, What happened? You want to be there.’”

Koy adds that another nominee, Ali Wong, reminded him of the importance of doing his own research.

“Ali Wong, when she talked to me on the phone, was like, ‘Be prepared. Just be prepared.’ And that’s why I’ve been hyperfocused, watching every [nominated] movie and TV show—because of Ali. This is my second time watching Beef. I already watched it, but she’s right. I’m going to be prepared, watching all these movies, writing down ideas, and writing out joke ideas. I’d rather be overprepared.”

To the Peloton instructor who criticized a Christopher Nolan movie during a recent class: You might want to check the leaderboard before weighing in next time.

Onstage at the New York Film Critics Circle dinner in Manhattan Wednesday night, where Nolan accepted the best-director prize for Oppenheimer, the filmmaker put his own spin on the adage that everyone’s a critic. “I was on my Peloton doing some high-interval gasping, some shit,” he started, vaguely but accurately describing the sensation of being mid-workout. “The instructor started talking about one of my films, saying, ‘That’s a couple of hours of my life I’ll never get back.’” After a pause for laughs, Nolan expressed his gratitude for actual movie critics: “When Rex Reed takes a shit on your film, he doesn’t ask you to work out more with him.”

Untelevised and with the winners announced a month in advance, the NYFCC dinner is a loose, lower pressure opportunity for the year’s biggest contenders to step onstage just days into the New Year. Many of Wednesday night’s winners, Nolan included, are likely to have repeat victories at the Golden Globes on Sunday. But televised awards shows have infamous countdown clocks, and a lot of pressure to give a good sound bite. At the NYFCC dinner, meanwhile, speeches ran long, introductions were heartfelt—and according to NYFCC chair Matt Singer, the whole thing wrapped up 15 minutes early anyway.

It’s traditional for each of the night’s honorees to be introduced by another high-profile figure in the film world, making room for some surprising stories that might never otherwise make it to an awards show stage. Richard Jenkins was on hand to introduce The Holdovers star Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the night’s best-supporting-actress winner, and revealed that after they’d worked together on one film, he specifically requested her for a role in his next one. (They both appear in the 2020 films Kajillionaire and The Last Shift, though nobody specified which came first.) “We actors have a way of seeking out greatness in other actors,” Jenkins said onstage. “It’s called jealousy.”

Supporting-actor winner Charles Melton was seated at the Netflix table next to the actor who introduced him, Lucas Hedges, who recalled meeting the May December star over karaoke years ago. “Like Todd Haynes [the director of May December], I had no idea what to do with how good looking he was,” Hedges said. Praising Melton’s charisma and talent—the former Riverdale star’s karaoke song was “Halo,” an incredible flex—Hedges added a warning: “Now, if anyone knows anything about stardom or being a successful actor, everything I just said about Melton is as much a red flag as it is beautiful. Melton could so easily be a monster. But this is not who he is. I can say this with certainty: Melton deserves his light.”

Experiencing his first awards season, Melton was effusive in his enthusiasm for his fellow winners and many presenters too. He shouted out Paul Dano, in the room to present Justine Triet with the best-international-feature prize for Anatomy of a Fall, as an inspiration to him as a young actor. After Dano’s own moment onstage, he flagged down Melton, and the two shared a hug in a corner of the room, talking animatedly for a few minutes before returning to their tables.