Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
SANTA MONICA — The time-bending adventure “Everything Everywhere All at Once” continued its streak ahead of Oscar night, winning seven of its eight nominations on Saturday during the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony, honoring independent films from the past year.
The film, which has already claimed top honors from the Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild, earned the Spirit Award for best feature, beating out “Bones and All,” “Our Father, the Devil,” “Tár” and “Women Talking.”
The award went to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (billed as “Daniels”), who co-directed and co-wrote as well as produced the film, along with producers Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo and Jonathan Wang.
“Everything Everywhere” won directing and screenplay awards for Kwan and Scheinert, a breakthrough performance nod for Stephanie Hsu, a leading performer prize for Michelle Yeoh and a supporting performance award for Ke Huy Quan, who was up against co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, the only nomination that didn’t result in a win because the two performers were competing in the same category.
Film Independent adjusted its awards process this year, switching to gender-neutral acting honors in the lead and supporting performance categories. Each of those categories had a total of 10 nominees.
Also nominated for leading performer were Cate Blanchett (“Tár”), Dale Dickey (“A Love Song”), Mia Goth (“Pearl”), Regina Hall (“Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul”), Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”), Aubrey Plaza (“Emily the Criminal”), Jeremy Pope (“The Inspection”), Andrew Riseborough (“To Leslie”) and Taylor Russell (“Bones and All”).
In addition to Quan and Curtis, the supporting performance nominees were Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”), Nina Hoss (“Tár”), Brian d’Arcy James (“The Cathedral”), Trevante Rhodes (“Bruiser”), Theo Rossi (“Emily the Criminal”), Mark Rylance (“Bones and All”), Jonathan Tucker (“Palm Trees and Power Lines”) and Gabrielle Union (“The Inspection”).
Hsu won over Frankie Corio (“Aftersun”), Gracija Filipović (“Murina”), Lily McInerny (“Palm Trees and Power Lines”) and Daniel Zolghadri (“Funny Pages”).
Yeoh and Quan, who played a married couple, also won SAG and Golden Globe awards in their respective categories. Hsu, who played the daughter, and Curtis, who played an IRS inspector, both received SAG nominations for best supporting actress; Curtis won.
“Everything Everywhere” also won an Independent Spirit Award for editing, which went to Paul Rogers. Also nominated were “Tár,” “The Cathedral,” “Aftersun” and “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.”
Competing with “Everything Everywhere” for best director were Todd Field for “Tár,” Kogonada for “After Yang,” Sarah Polley for “Women Talking” and Halina Reijn for “Bodies Bodies Bodies.”
In addition to the Daniels, nominees for best screenplay were Field (“Tár”), Kagonada (“After Yang”), Lena Dunham (“Catherine Called Birdy”) and Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”).
“After Yang,” which was also edited by Kogonada, is a science fiction story about a family’s attempts to repair their unresponsive robotic child. It stars Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja and Haley Lu Richardson.
Nominees for best first screenplay included Joel Kim Booster for “Fire Island.” The award went to John Patton Ford for “Emily the Criminal.”
“Fire Island,” a romantic comedy directed by Andrew Ahn, follows a group of gay friends who go on vacation, only for things to become complicated by classism and romance. The cast includes Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully and Margaret Cho.
In the international film category, the winner was Saim Sadiq’s “Joyland” from Pakistan. Nominees included “Return to Seoul” (Cambodia), directed and written by Davy Chou, and “Leonore Will Never Die” (Philippines), directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar.
Among the television categories, the award for best ensemble cast in a new scripted series went to “Pachinko” cast members Soji Arai, Jin Ha, Inji Jeong, Minha Kim, Kaho Minami, Lee Minho, Steve Sanghyun Noh, Anna Sawai, Jimmi Simpson and Yuh-jung Youn.
“Pachinko” was also nominated for best new scripted series. The award went to “The Bear.” Also nominated were “The Porter,” “Station Eleven” and “Severance.”
Created by Soo Hugh, based on a novel by Min Jin Lee, and directed by Kogonada and Justin Chon, “Pachinko” begins with a forbidden love and crescendos into a sweeping saga that journeys between Korea, Japan and America to tell an unforgettable story of war and peace, love and loss, triumph and reckoning.
For best lead performance in a scripted series, the winner was Quinta Brunson for “Abbott Elementary.” Nominees included Himesh Patel for “Station Eleven” and Sue Ann Pien for “As We See It.”
The Spirit Awards ceremony was held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, hosted by comedian Hasan Minhaj.
Presenters included Troy Kotsur, Austin Butler, Melanie Lynskey, Beatrice Granno, Sharon Horgan, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Taylour Paige and Jenny Slate, another “Everything Everywhere” cast member. Event co-chairs Chloé Zhao — Oscar and Independent Spirit Award winner for “Nomadland” — and Sian Heder also presented.