30th Independent Spirit Award WINNERS: Man Beats Boy

Birdman won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature, besting favorite Boyhood, which managed wins for director Richard Linklater and Supporting Female for Patricia Arquette. The rest of the acting categories went as expected, to Michael Keaton for Best Male Lead, Julianne Moore for Best Female Lead and J.K. Simmons for Best Supporting Male. Moore, Simmons and Arquette are all expected to pick up Oscar tomorrow but Lead Actor is still up for grabs and Keaton could best Eddie Redmayne there, although it’s an uphill battle to be sure.

Birdman‘s triumph over Boyhood here though, at the Indie Spirits of all places, bodes extraordinarily well for its Oscar chances tomorrow. It could, and should, easily follow its PGA and SAG wins to a Best Picture win as well.

Full list of winners:

BEST FEATURE
Birdman

BEST DIRECTOR
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

BEST MALE LEAD
Michael Keaton, Birdman

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

BEST EDITING
Tom Cross, Whiplash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuael Lubeski, Birdman

BEST SCREENPLAY
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Dear White People (Justin Simien)

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARDS
Land Ho!

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Ida (Poland)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Inherent Vice

SPECIAL DISTINCTION AWARD
Foxcatcher

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Chris Ohlson

LENSCRAFTERS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Dan Krauss, director of The Kill Team

KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia, directors of H

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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