34th Film Independent Spirit Awards winners speak backstage

Watch the interview sessions of all the 34^th Film Independent Spirit Award winners who visited the backstage media tent below.

Richard E. Grant, Best Supporting Male winner
for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
(video by Michael Dequina)

Bo Burnham, Best First Screenplay winner
for Eighth Grade
(video by Michael Dequina)

Leave No Trace director Debra Granik,
Bonnie Award winner
(video by Michael Dequina)

Roma director Alfonso Cuarón,
Best International Film winner
(video by Michael Dequina)

Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley,
Best First Feature winner
(video by Michael Dequina)

Suspiria casting directors Stella Savino and Avy Kaufman
with cast members including
Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jessica Harper, and Tilda Swinton,
Robert Altman Award winners
(video by Michael Dequina)

Won't You Be My Neighbor? director Morgan Neville
& producer Nicholas Ma,
Best Documentary winners
(video by Michael Dequina)

En El Séptimo Día star Genoel Ramirez
and producers Lindsey Cordero & Caroline Kaplan,
John Cassavetes Award winners
(video by Michael Dequina)

Joe Bini, Best Editing winner
for You Were Never Really Here
(video by Michael Dequina)

Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, Best Screenplay winners
for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
(video by Michael Dequina)

Glenn Close, Best Female Lead winner
for The Wife
(video by Michael Dequina)

Barry Jenkins, Best Director winner
for If Beale Street Could Talk,
with fellow Best Feature winners, producers
Adele Romanski, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Sara Murphy
(video by Michael Dequina)

(photo by Michael Dequina)

(Special thanks to Ginsberg/Libby and Film Independent for their generous help every year)

The Movie Report wants to attend all your film awards events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

34th Film Independent Spirit Awards winners & scene

Big wins for Barry Jenkins's adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk marked a return to the "independent" part of the name of Film Independent's 34^th Saturday-before-Oscar celebration of American independent film, the Spirit Awards, again taking place in a tent on Santa Monica beach adjacent to the famous Santa Monica Pier. In addition to the top prize of Best Feature, Barry Jenkins took home the Best Director trophy for the Annapurna Pictures production, as did Regina King for Best Supporting Female. The two other multiple award-winning films, winning two trophies each, occupied polar opposite ends of the spectrum: Fox Searchlight's Can You Ever Forgive Me?, recognized for Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty's screenplay and Richard E. Grant's Best Supporting Male performance; and Amazon Studios's reimagining of Suspiria from director Luca Guadagnino, honored for Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's cinematography as well as its ensemble cast, which won the previously announced Robert Altman Award. The full list of winners is as follows:

• Best Feature
  If Beale Street Could Talk
  Producers: Dede Gardner, Barry Jenkins, Jeremy Kleiner, Sara Murphy, Adele Romanski
• Best Director
  Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
• Best Screenplay
  Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Best First Feature
  Sorry to Bother You
  Director: Boots Riley
  Producers: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Jonathan Duffy, Charles D. King, George Rush, Forest Whitaker, Kelly Williams
• Best First Screenplay
  Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
• John Cassavetes Award (for best feature made under $500,000)
  En El Séptimo Día
  Writer/Director/Producer: Jim McKay
  Producers: Alex Bach, Lindsey Cordero, Caroline Kaplan, Michael Stipe
• Best Supporting Female
  Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
• Best Supporting Male
  Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Best Female Lead
  Glenn Close, The Wife
• Best Male Lead
  Ethan Hawke, Frist Reformed
• Robert Altman Award
  Suspiria
  Director: Luca Guadagnino
  Casting Directors: Avy Kaufman and Stella Savino
  Ensemble Cast: Malgosia Bela, Ingrid Caven, Lutz Ebersdorf, Elena Fouina, Mia Goth, Jessica Harper, Dakota Johnson, Gala Moody, Chloë Grace Moretz, Fabrizia Sacchi, Renée Soutendijk, Tilda Swinton, Sylvie Testud, Angela Winkler
• Best Cinematography
  Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Suspiria
• Best Editing
  Joe Bini, You Were Never Really Here
• Best International Film
  Roma (Mexico)
  Director: Alfonso Cuarón
• Best Documentary
  Won't You Be My Neighbor?
  Director/Producer: Morgan Neville
  Producers: Caryn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma

But as with every year, the winners of the trophies is but a part of the whole story, for the casual, laid-back, highly unpretentious atmosphere of the event makes this awards season stop a true overall experience and not merely an awards show, with all the activity and mingling in the area around the tent just as celebratory and entertaining as the official happenings inside. Here are some visual highlights from my live Instagram and Twitter coverage today, with video of winners' backstage interviews to be posted later tonight.

View of awards tent site from Santa Monica Pier
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Backstage interview stage
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Photographer room stage
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Richard E. Grant, Best Supporting Male winner
for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Bo Burnham, Best First Screenplay winner
for Eighth Grade
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Leave No Trace director Debra Granik,
Bonnie Award winner
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Roma director Alfonso Cuarón,
Best International Film winner
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley,
Best First Feature winner
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Suspiria casting directors Stella Savino and Avy Kaufman
with cast members including
Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jessica Harper, and Tilda Swinton,
Robert Altman Award winners
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Won't You Be My Neighbor? director Morgan Neville
& producer Nicholas Ma,
Best Documentary winners
(photo by Michael Dequina)

En El Séptimo Día star Genoel Ramirez
and producers Lindsey Cordero & Caroline Kaplan,
John Cassavetes Award winners
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Joe Bini, Best Editing winner
for You Were Never Really Here
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, Best Screenplay winners
for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Glenn Close, Best Female Lead winner
for The Wife
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Barry Jenkins, Best Director winner
for If Beale Street Could Talk,
with fellow Best Feature winners, producers
Adele Romanski, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Sara Murphy
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Subaru display
(photo by Michael Dequina)

DirecTV bungalow, presented by AT&T
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Hangar 1 Vodka bar
(photo by Michael Dequina)

Maestro Dobel Tequila bar
(photo by Michael Dequina)

(photo by Michael Dequina)

(Special thanks to Ginsberg/Libby and Film Independent for their generous help every year)

The Movie Report wants to attend all your film awards events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

The Movie Report #1008, February 22, 2019

#1008, February 22, 2019

MOVIES:

• Gully Boy
  
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
  
• Run the Race
  

The Movie Report wants to attend and cover all your film events and press junkets! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

Pan African Film & Arts Festival 2019 Reviews

• Baby Mamas
  
• The Burial of Kojo
  
• Lara and the Beat
  
• Native Son
  
• #truth
  
• Warrior Pride
  

The Movie Report wants to attend all your film festivals and special events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

Movie Music Monday: The street sounds of Gully Boy, real vs. reel life

Zoya Akhtar's hip-hop music drama Gully Boy is inspired by the real lives of Indian rappers Naezy and Divine, and while she and co-writer Reema Kagti do not directly retell the pair's actual stories, real and reel lives converge at a crucial moment in the film where their 2015 viral hit "Mere Gully Mein" ("In My Street") is recreated. The song and the making of its video occurs in the film at a similar juncture in the Naezy-inspired lead character Murad's (Ranveer Singh) career as an Internet-driven, game-changing breakthrough. More important from Akhtar's storytelling perspective, however, are the broader thematic parallels. As propulsive and infectious as it is musically--after all, it's easier to use an existing earworm than to attempt to create an original one--lyrically it also reinforces the film's key message of giving voice to the too-often-overlooked urban reality for many in India and, most importantly, celebrating the vibrant, living community that fuels both the central character's and his real life model's art.

Here is the original video by Divine featuring Naezy:

Here is the number as it appears in Gully Boy, with Singh gamely providing his own vocals. His co-star, charismatic newcomer Siddhant Chaturvedi, lipsynchs vocals provided by Divine:

As a bonus, here is Bombay 70, director Disha Noyonika Rindani's award-winning 2014 documentary short subject on Naezy:

Gully Boy is now playing in cinemas in North America, India, and worldwide.

Buy the "Mere Gully Mein" MP3 here.

The Movie Report wants to attend all your film premieres and special events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

The Movie Report #1007, February 15, 2019

#1007, February 15, 2019

MOVIES:

• Alita: Battle Angel
  
• Fighting with My Family
  
• Happy Death Day 2U
  
• The Image Book (Le Livre d'Image)
  
• Isn't It Romantic
  
• Ruben Brandt, Collector
  

The Movie Report wants to attend and cover all your film events and press junkets! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!