Forget the Soap…12 Years A Slave Pulls Five Finger Discount at the 2014 Indie Spirit Awards

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave pulled a five finger discount at the 2014 Indie Spirit Awards grabbing hardware in the Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography categories. Apart from the larceny in the Best Doc category, the winners in the above mention category (excluding Bobbitt’s work) and the double win pairing of Leto and McConaughey along with Cate Blanchett’s perf win in Blue Jasmine will likely repeat itself less than 24 hours later at tomorrow’s Academy Awards celebrations obviously begging many to ponder the following: who needs the 86th Academy Awards when we have the Indie Spirit Awards? While today’s most pleasurable wins come from the truly indie kudos for Best First Feature (Ryan Coogler for Frutivale Station) the John Cassavetes award for Chad Hartigan’s This is Martin Bonner, and the Piaget Producers Award to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints/Pit Stop‘s Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston, among the highlights to be expected tomorrow should be acceptance speech gymnastics in how to modify an Indie Spirit winning speech into an Oscar winning speech (which is not unlike what one might see when presidential candidates move from one city to the next in the lead up to the big night). Here are the noms and wins in all categories.

BEST FEATURE
12 Years A Slave (WINNER)
All Is Lost
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

BEST DIRECTOR

Shane Carruth, Upstream Color
J.C. Chandor, All Is Lost
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave (WINNER)
Jeff Nichols, Mud
Alexander Payne, Nebraska

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (WINNER)
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson, Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now

BEST MALE LEAD

Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Michael B Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club (WINNER)
Robert Redford, All Is Lost

BEST SCREENPLAY

Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater, Before Midnight
Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, The Spectacular Now
John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Melonie Diaz, Fruitvale Station
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave (WINNER)
Yolonda Ross, Go For Sisters
June Squibb, Nebraska

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Will Forte, Nebraska
James Gandolfini, Enough Said
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club (WINNER)
Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Lake Bell, In A World
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon
Bob Nelson, Nebraska (WINNER)
Jill Soloway, Afternoon Delight
Mike Starrbury, The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years A Slave (WINNER)
Benoit Debie, Spring Breakers
Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Frank G. Demarco, All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess

BEST EDITING

Shane Carruth & David Lowery, Upstream Color
Jem Cohen & Marc Vives, Museum Hours
Frank G. Demarco, All Is Lost
Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess
Nat Sanders, Short Term 12 (WINNER)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
20 Feet From Stardom, Director/Producer: Morgan Neville, Producers: Gil Friesen & Caitrin Rogers (WINNER)
After Tiller, Directors/Producers: Martha Shane & Lana Wilson
Gideon’s Army, Director/Producer: Dawn Porter, Producer: Julie Goldman
The Act of Killing, Director/Producer: Joshua Oppenheimer, Producers: Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo
The Square, Director: Jehane Noujaim, Producer: Karim Amer

BEST INT’L FILM

A Touch of Sin (China)
Blue is the Warmest Color (France) (Winner)
Gloria (Chile)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)

BEST FIRST FEATURE

Blue Caprice, Director/Producer: Alexandre Moors; Producers: Kim Jackson, Brian O’Carroll, Isen Robbins, Will Rowbotham, Ron Simons, Aimee Schoof, Stephen Tedeschi;
Concussion, Director: Stacie Passon, Producer: Rose Troche
Fruitvale Station, Director: Ryan Coogler; Producers: Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker (WINNER)
Una Noche, Director/Producer: Lucy Mulloy, Producers: Sandy Pérez Aguila, Maite Artieda, Daniel Mulloy, Yunior Santiago
Wadjda, Director: Haifaa Al Mansour, Producers: Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (best feature made for under $500,000)

Computer Chess, Writer/Director: Andrew Bujalski, Producers: Houston King & Alex Lipschultz
Crystal Fairy, Writer/Director: Sebastiàn Silva, Producers: Juan de Dios Larraín & Pablo Larraín
Museum Hours, Writer/Director: Jem Cohen, Producers: Paolo Calamita & Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Pit Stop, Writer/Director: Yen Tan, Writer: David Lowery, Producers: Jonathan Duffy, James M. Johnston, Eric Steele, Kelly Williams
This is Martin Bonner, Writer/Director: Chad Hartigan, Producer: Cherie Saulter (WINNER)

17th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Toby Halbrooks & James M. Johnston (WINNER)
Jacob Jaffke
Andrea Roa
Frederick Thornton

20th ANNUAL SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
My Sister’s Quinceañera, Director: Aaron Douglas Johnston
Newlyweeds, Director: Shaka King (WINNER)
The Foxy Merkins, Director: Madeline Olnek

19th ANNUAL STELLA ARTOIS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Kalyanee Mam, A River Changes Course
Jason Osder, Let the Fire Burn (WINNER)
Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, Manakamana

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Mud, Director: Jeff Nichols, Casting Director: Francine Maisler, Ensemble Cast: Joe Don Baker, Jacob Lofland, Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Michael Shannon, Sam Shepard, Tye Sheridan, Paul Sparks, Bonnie Sturdivant, Reese Witherspoon