“Spotlight” Wins Big at Spirit Awards

The newsroom drama “Spotlight” was the big victor at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, the day before it will compete for best picture at the Academy Awards.

The Spirits ‎are one of the preeminent independent-film awards ceremonies, honoring movies made for approximately $20 million or less‎.

Spotlight – “Writer-director Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” puts the high beams on the Boston Globe’s 2002 exposé of the Roman Catholic Church’s institutional protection of sexually abusive priests”.

The Film Independent Spirit Awards are seen as a strong indicator of independent movies that could win Oscar glory. Indeed, annually held on the eve of the Oscars (last night), a few of this year’s nominees, including Cate Blanchett and Brie Larson seemed to let loose while celebrating indie filmmaking in Santa Monica, Calif.

On Saturday, the young actor was named best male lead at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards. Other winners of the night included Emma Donoghue who won Best First Screenplay for “Room”, while the award for Best First Feature went to Marielle Heller “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”.

“There is transgender talent”, she said, adding with a hair-flip: “Beautiful transgender talent”.

While “Spotlight” is nominated for a number of Oscars, it is not favored to win any of them except best original screenplay; the online bookmaker Paddy Power gives its authors, Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, 1 to 10 odds of winning.

US Vice President Joe Biden called on Americans to pledge to intervene against sexual violence and then introduced his “friend” Lady Gaga, who performed her song “Til It Happens To You” joined onstage by dozens of sexual assault survivors.

He said: “It was hard, I literally I had a baby one month before I started filming, my first son”. And the documentary front-runner, the Indonesian genocide film “Look of Silence” won best documentary. “That was so good”, Mara said to her director boyfriend Charlie McDowell.

“Spotlight” won the top feature film award over “Anomalisa”, “Beasts of No Nation”, “Carol” and “Tangerine”.

Oscar frontrunner Brie Larson was the evening’s predictable victor, honoured with Best Female Lead for her powerful display of a protective mother in the drama Room.