On Saturday, Film Independent set up shop on Santa Monica Beach for the Spirit Awards, the largest celebration for the independent cinema community. The Hollywood Reporter went inside the famous white tent on the beach to bring you all the action you might have missed, while cameras filmed the live show for a webcast on IMDb (a first after being televised on IFC for years).
Hasan Minhaj remains until Cate Blanchett emerges from her performance.
Hasan Minhaj, host of the Spirit Awards, presented an ambitious plan for one of his bits: To use as the Spirit Awards thumbnail on YouTube (in an effort to increase views, try getting big-name celebrities like Cate Blanchett to react to certain scenarios and then capture their reaction on camera.In order to use their response as the Spirit Awards thumbnail on YouTube, Cate Blanchett will react to numerous circumstances and then record their expression on camera (as a play to gain views, he said). But when Blanchett ducked for safety under the table, it rapidly backfired. While Regina Hall and Marisa Tomei also vanished under a white tablecloth, Todd Field, the director of Tár, caught Minhaj’s eye.
Cameras captured all of it, of course, but THR noticed that Minhaj stayed still while Blanchett, Field, and Tomei emerged for air as Jenny Slate and Nicholas Braun presented the Spirit Award for outstanding new scripted series. He seems to have had a friendly conversation with Blanchett about the situation. THR later confirmed that Blanchett and the cast were fully unaware of Minhaj’s scheme when they dove for shelter.
After a near sweep, the Everything Everywhere All at Once team hit the press room where they posed for pics on the mini stage hoisting their haul of hardware. Nominee Jamie Lee Curtis came ready with a pair of gloves shaped like hot dog fingers, a welcome sight to fans of the hit film. On a more serious note, the Daniels spoke about A24’s recent auction of film props that raised more than $500,000 for charity. “When they first asked for him, I said that’s too valuable,” Daniel Scheinert said of offering animatronic raccoon puppet Raccacoonie.
He said he was glad to have a change of heart because “it sold for $90,000 and that’s going to Asian Mental Health Project, so a bunch of people will get to go to therapy for free. Raccacoonie is a hero.” Daniel Kwan added the auction was all A24’s idea, and “all the super fans and collectors who decided to put that money into things like rocks and hotdog pants, it’s so silly but at the same time, knowing that perhaps has profound effects on real people’s lives is incredible.”
