The Indie Spirit Awards handed out their 2013 awards on Saturday, March 1, one day before the Oscars.
The big winner of the night was Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave," which took home Best Film. If the film wins at the Oscars on Sunday, it could become the third time the Indie Spirit Awards have agreed on the Best Picture of the year with the Oscars. The instances include "The Artist" and "Platoon."
The movie also took home the Best Director award as well as the Best Supporting Actress award for Lupita Nyong'o. John Ridley won Best Screenplay while Sean Bobbit by surprised winning the Best Cinematography award. Bobbit was not nominated at the Oscars and many pundits believed the Oscar nominated work from Bruno Delbonnel ("Inside Llewyn Davis") would be victorious.
As predicted Cate Blanchett took home the Best Actress award for her work in "Blue Jasmine." While she had none of her Oscar competitors in the race it is predicted that she will win the Academy Award.
Meanwhile, Matthew McConaughey solidified his chances at the Oscars as he won the Best Actor award for his work in "Dallas Buyers Club," beating out Chiwetel Ejiofor and Bruce Dern. However, there could still be a chance that Leonardo DiCaprio could surprise for his work in "The Wolf of Wall Street."
Jared Leto has long been the front-runner in the supporting race and the win at the Indie Spirit awards gave him even more momentum for the Academy Awards. The actor won the Best Supporting Actor for his work in Jean-Marc Vallee's "Dallas Buyers Club."
"Nebraska" had some luck at the awards as it won the Best First Screenplay. The film has not been doing well at the precursors and with Alexander Payne's film competing with "American Hustle" and "Her," "Nebraska" is unlikely to repeat at the Academy Awards.
"Blue is the Warmest Color" won Best International film taking out Oscar favorites "The Great Beauty" and "The Hunt." The lack of a win from either Oscar nominee only continues to make the category unpredictable and will probably be a race to watch on Sunday.
The documentary category went to "20 Feet From Stardom." The movie beat out Oscar favorite "The Act of Killing" and "The Square." Expect "20 Feet From Stardom" to go home with the Academy Award on Sunday after this key victory.
A couple of non-Oscar nominees also took home awards. "Short Term 12" took home the Best Editing award beating out Best Feature nominee "Frances Ha." Meanwhile, "Fruitvale Station" won the Best First Film while "Mud" was awarded the Robert Altman Award. "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "All is Lost" were completely shut out after scoring key nominations. The lack of wins only confirmed how unpopular the movies were in such a crowded year.
The Indie Spirit Awards are not always the best indicator for the Oscars because none of the studio films ever qualify for the awards. The rules state that in order to qualify, the film should have cost less than $20 million. As a result "American Hustle," "Her," "Gravity," "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Captain Phillips" could not compete; "Philomena" did not qualify because it was not an American film. As a result, the victories at this awards ceremony may diverge from the Oscars.
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