{"id":91241,"date":"2017-02-25T20:59:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T01:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=91241"},"modified":"2017-02-25T20:59:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T01:59:15","slug":"moonlight-sweeps-spirit-awards-affleck-wins-best-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/02\/25\/moonlight-sweeps-spirit-awards-affleck-wins-best-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moonlight’ sweeps Spirit Awards; Affleck wins best actor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe policies of this administration are abhorrent and will not last,\u201d said Affleck, accepting his award (Photo: theilr\/ Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SANTA MONICA, Calif. \u2013Sunday might be dominated by \u201cLa La Land,\u201d but Saturday belonged to \u201cMoonlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barry Jenkins’ luminous coming-of-age tale swept Saturday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards, taking home six awards including best feature. \u201cMoonlight\u201d won every award it was nominated for at the 32nd annual indie awards, the dressed-down, beachside ceremony held the day before the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoonlight\u201d won for its directing, screenplay, cinematography and editing. It was also honoured for its ensemble cast in the Spirit Awards’ Robert Altman Award. Backstage, Jenkins said its tale of a poor, young, black kid in Miami stood in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think ‘Moonlight’ exists as a beacon of inclusivity,\u201d said Jenkins, flanked by his African-American cast and producers.<\/p>\n

The afternoon ceremony frequently had a strong political tenor. Casey Affleck, who won best actor for \u201cManchester by the Sea,\u201d wore a shirt with the word \u201clove\u201d in Arabic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe policies of this administration are abhorrent and will not last,\u201d said Affleck, accepting his award. Backstage, he spoke about \u201cthe torrent of terrifying news that comes out of Washington every day<\/p>\n

Some Oscar contenders were missing their presumed rivals at the Spirit Awards, which only nominated films made for $20 million or less (and thus disqualifying the Academy Awards favourite \u201cLa La Land\u201d). But if \u201cMoonlight,\u201d nominated for eight Oscars including best picture, is to pull off the upset Sunday, it has some history on its side. The last three Spirit Awards best-feature winners \u2013 \u201cSpotlight,\u201d \u201cBirdman,\u201d \u201c12 Years a Slave\u201d \u2013 all went on to win best picture at the Oscars.<\/p>\n

Host Nick Kroll and John Mulaney maintained a rigorously irreverent tone through a ceremony often punctuated by belly laughs. In their opening monologue, Kroll mockingly defended the common charge of \u201cliberal elitism\u201d often thrown at Hollywood events like the Spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not in a bubble. We’re in a tent,\u201d said Kroll, referring to the Spirits’ Santa Monica, Calif., home. \u201cWe’re fringe artists on a California beach. If we leaned any further to the left, we’d topple into the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of a lengthy in memoriam reel, they opted instead for a highlight of those who didn’t die, singling out Milos Foreman and Tim Allen while Andy Samberg, doing his best Eddie Vedder, sang Pearl Jam’s \u201cAlive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best actress went to Isabelle Huppert, the French actress of \u201cElle,\u201d who bested Natalie Portman and Annette Bening. Just as Affleck wasn’t up against Oscar favourite Denzel Washington in best actor, the best actress category was missing Emma Stone of \u201cLa La Land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molly Shannon, the former \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d cast member, supplied one of the afternoon’s highpoints. She was visibly overjoyed by winning best supporting actress for her performance in \u201cOther People.\u201d She concluded her speech by exclaiming, \u201cI really truly feel like a … SUPERSTAR!\u201d \u2013 aping her old \u201cSNL\u201d character.<\/p>\n

Other awards also went to films far outside the Oscar candidates. Robert Eggers’ well-researched \u201cThe Witch,\u201d set in 17th century Massachusetts, won for both best first feature and best first screenplay. He thanked the Puritans for \u201cwriting down so much stuff.<\/p>\n

Ezra Edelman’s \u201cO.J.: Made in America\u201d took best documentary. Best foreign language film went to Maren Ade’s \u201cToni Erdmann.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cassavettes Award, which honours the best feature made for less than $500,000 went to Andrew Ahn’s Korean gay-immigrant drama \u201cSpa Night.\u201d Taking the stage Ahn first remarked, \u201cI’m going to barf,\u201d but quickly collected himself, speaking tenderly about his parents’ acceptance of their gay son and the need for acceptance of immigrants, gays and other communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are part of this great country,\u201d said Ahn. \u201cAnd we are undeniable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SANTA MONICA, Calif. \u2013Sunday might be dominated by \u201cLa La Land,\u201d but Saturday belonged to \u201cMoonlight.\u201d Barry Jenkins’ luminous coming-of-age …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":91242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[15786,9800,15785],"class_list":["post-91241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-casey-affleck","tag-moonlight","tag-oscars-awards","mauthors-jake-coyle","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}