30th Independent Spirit Awards: 'Birdman' Wins Best Film

A day before the Oscar awards ceremony on the morning of February 23rd (Vietnam time), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman won Best Picture at the 30th Independent Spirit Awards.

In addition, the film also earned Michael Keaton the Best Actor award and the Best Cinematography award (Emmanuel Lubezki).

Meanwhile, Richard Linklater won the Best Director award for Boyhood. However, he was not present at the awards ceremony, and the film's star, Ethan Hawke, accepted the award on his behalf.

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu with the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film

Nightcrawler, the dark film by director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy, was awarded Best First Film and Best Screenplay.

Citizenfour, the documentary about Edward Snowden, won Best Documentary, while the Polish black-and-white drama, Ida, won Best Foreign Language Film. Coincidentally, both films were strong contenders for the Oscars.

The Independent Spirit Awards are voted on by Film Independent, a group of filmmakers, experts, and film enthusiasts, from films made with budgets of $20 million or less.

As Hollywood increasingly chases blockbuster films, the Independent Spirit Awards, once considered a trivial "appetizer" before the Oscars, is proving to be the central event of the awards season, or at least an idealized one. This year, for the first time, the awards ceremony will be televised live.

Actress Julianne Moore received the Best Actress award for her role in Still Alice.

Last year, the actors and film 12 Years a Slave, which won the Independent Spirit Award, all went on to win at the Oscars. This year, it's highly likely that this will repeat itself, as strong Oscar contenders Julianne Moore (Still Alice), JK Simmons (Whiplash), and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) all won the Independent Spirit Award.

Although the Independent Spirit Awards have become more extravagant in recent years, with features like costume shows, the event primarily aims to discover and honor low-budget films that often struggle to find distributors.

“We filmed this movie in 23 days with a budget of $4 million,” said Moore, the lead actor in Still Alice. “I brought my own food, my own costumes, and I begged my co-star Alec Baldwin to do the same.”

According to Thethaovanhoa.vn