Spa Night Archives - Big Gay Picture Show

Each year the day before the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards are held, which were set up as the equivalent of the Hollywood-centric Academy Awards but for movies made outside the mainstream. This year the big winner was Moonlight, which picked up five gongs.

The film, about three stages in the life of a young gay man, picked up Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Barry Jenkins, Best Cinematography for James Laxton and the Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble. It’s an impressive result for the movie, which is also hoping to win some awards at the Oscars. While most expect La La Land to be the big winner at the Academy Awards, many hope Moonlight will at least be able to at least pick up a couple Oscars, and some think it has a decent chance of providing an upset and winning Best Film.

Moonlight wasn’t the only gay-themed film that triumphed at the Independent Spirit Awards. Molly Shannon won Best Supporting Actress for playing the dying mother of a gay son in the dramedy Other People. There was also Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night, about a Korean-American teenager who finds an underground world of gay sex in a Korean spa, which took home the John Cassavetes Awards for Best Feature Made For Under $5,000.

It was certainly a gay-heavy evening! The Oscars only have Moonlight representing gay-themed cinema, so we’ll have to cross our fingers that it manages to win a few awards there too. Take a look at the full list of Independent Spirit Award winners and some highlights below. [Read more…]

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ACTORS: Molly Shannon DIRECTORS: Barry Jenkins FILMS: Moonlight, Other People, Spa Night

It’s certainly been a good year for gay-themed films amongst the nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, the pre-eminent indie awards ceremony (films are only eligible if they have a budget of less and $20 million), which takes place ahead of the Oscars each year. Leading the way is the acclaimed Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’ film about a young, gay African-American, which picked up six noms, equal with the Shia LaBeouf starrer, American Honey.

It’s up for Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and is the sole nominee for the Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble.

Also gettin multiple nods was Other People, starring Jesse Plemons as a gay guy who heads home to take care of his dying mother. It picked up four nominations for Plemons, co-star Molly Shannon, Chris Kelly for his screenplay and director Chris Kelly for Best First Feature.

However, Moonlight and Other People weren’t only the gay-themed films up for awards, with Spa Night (about a closeted Korean-American teenager) director Andrew Ahn up for the John Cassavettes Award (for Best Feature Made For Under $5,000) and Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award. Lesbian crime drama Women Who Kill, was also nominated for the Kiehl’s Award, for director Ingrid Jungermann, while Certain Women was nominated for Best Director for Kelly Reichardt, while Lily Gladstone, whose character falls for Kristen Stewart in the movie, is up for Best Supporting Female.

There were also a couple of gay-themed documentaries in the mix, with ball-culture doc Kiki up for the Truer Than Fiction Award, while I Am Not Your Negro, about gay, African-American writer James Baldwin’s unfinished novel, Remember This House, is included in the Best Docuemntary category.

It’s certainly an impressive validation for LGBT-themed movies this year, with the hope that at least some of them will go on to be winners when the gongs are handed out early next year. Take a look at the full list of nominees below. [Read more…]