Spirit Awards: Beale Street Is Film Independent's Film Of 2018

Stephan James, Kiki Layne and Brian Tyree Henry in If Beale Street Could Talk

Do I ever love it when the Spirit Awards dive in head first to correct the Academy's mistakes! I'll allow them a rogue miss: Won't You Be My Neighbour? doesn't exactly represent much independent spirit imo, certainly not over its competitors, but choosing If Beale Street Could Talk as their Best Feature winner for 2018 more than earns back whatever respect that loses them. Other excellent choices such as Suspiria for Cinematography and You Were Never Really Here for Editing make for a pretty terrific slate across the board. See the 2018 Spirit Award nominees at this link, and check out all their award winners below.

Best Feature

If Beale Street Could Talk (Dede Gardner, Barry Jenkins, Jeremy Kleiner, Sara Murphy and Adele Romanski)

Best Director

Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk)

Best Female Lead

Glenn Close (The Wife)

Best Male Lead

Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

Best Supporting Female

Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)

Best Supporting Male

Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Best Screenplay

Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Best Cinematography

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Suspiria)

Best Editing

Joe Bini (You Were Never Really Here)

Robert Altman Award

Malgosia Bela, Ingrid Caven, Elena Fokina, Mia Goth, Luca Guadagnino, Jessica Harper, Dakota Johnson, Avy Kaufman, Gala Moody, Chloe Grace Moretz, Fabrizia Sacchi, Stella Savino, Renee Soutendijk, Tilda Swinton, Sylvie Testud and Angela Winkler (Suspiria)

Best Documentary

Won't You Be My Neighbour? (Carolyn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma and Morgan Neville)

Best International Film

Roma (Alfonso Cuaron)

Best First Feature

Sorry to Bother You (Jonathan Duffy, Charles D. King, Boots Riley, George Rush, Forest Whitaker, Kelly Williams and Nina Yang Bongiovi)

Best First Screenplay

Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade)

John Cassavetes Award

En el Septimo Dia (Alex Bach, Lindsey Cordero, Caroline Kaplan, Jim McKay and Michael Stipe)

Bonnie Award

Debra Granik

Piaget Producers Award

Shrihari Sathe

Someone to Watch Award

Alexandre Moratto (Socrates)

Truer Than Fiction Award

Liu Bing (Minding the Gap)