Independent Spirit Award / Best Film
Award-winning and nominated film productions for the Independent Spirit Award in the Best Film (Best Feature) category . The award honors the producers of a film. A prize has been awarded separately since 2001 for the best film with a production cost of less than US $ 500,000. This was named in 2002 in the John Cassavetes Prize (John Cassavetes Award) in memory of the American filmmaker John Cassavetes .
At the award ceremony in 2016, the US film productions submitted had to have a playing time of at least 70 minutes and production costs of less than 20 million US dollars (including post-production costs ). A film is considered American if two out of three of the following positions have been filled with US citizens: director, screenwriter or producer. Or the film is largely set in the US and at least 70 percent of the funding comes from companies headquartered in the United States. In the previous year, the films had to be at a cinema in the United States or at one of six film festivals ( Los Angeles Film Festival , New Directors / New Films Festival , New York Film Festival , Sundance Film Festival , Telluride Film Festival or Toronto International Film) for at least one week Festival ) to qualify.
Two films were each awarded by Robert Altman (1993, 1994), Ang Lee (2001, 2006) and Alexander Payne (2000, 2005) as directors. Todd Haynes (1996, 1999, 2003, 2008, 2016), whose melodrama Dem Himmel so Fern, won the Independent Spirit Award in 2003, was the most frequent nominee with five films . The works by Jim Jarmusch (1987, 1990, 1997, 2001) were nominated most often but without a win .
In 1987, 2012 and 2014–2017, the award-winning film matched the Oscar winner in the Best Film category ; in 2001 the subsequent Oscar winner was awarded in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
1980s
1986
The Time After Midnight (After Hours) - Director: Martin Scorsese
- Threatening Whisper (Smooth Talk) - Director: Joyce Chopra
- Blood Simple - A murderous night (Blood Simple) - Director: Joel Coen
- A Trip to Bountiful - Travel to happiness (A Trip to Bountiful) - Director: Peter Masterson
1987
Platoon - Director: Oliver Stone
- Blue Velvet - David Lynch
- Down by Law - Director: Jim Jarmusch
- On Valentine's Day - Director: Ken Harrison
- Salvador - Director: Oliver Stone
- Stand by Me - The Secret of a Summer (Stand by Me) - Director: Rob Reiner
1988
The Knife on the Bank (River's Edge) - Director: Tim Hunter
- The Big Easy - The Big Easy (The Big Easy) - Director: Jim McBride
- Tough Guys Do not Dance (Tough Guys Do not Dance) - Director: Norman Mailer
- Matewan - Director: John Sayles
- To Cambodia swimming (Swimming to Cambodia) - Director: Jonathan Demme
- Die Toten (The Dead) - Director: John Huston
1989
Stand and Deliver - Directed by Ramón Menéndez
- The Fall of Randall Adams (The Thin Blue Line) - Director: Errol Morris
- Hairspray - Director: John Waters
- Das Kuckucksei (Torch Song Trilogy) - Director: Paul Bogart
- Patti Rocks - Sex is Fun (Patti Rocks) - Director: David Burton Morris
1990s
1990
Sex, Lies and Video (Sex, Lies, and Videotape) - Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Drugstore Cowboy - Director: Gus Van Sant
- Heat and Sunlight - Director: Rob Nilsson
- Mystery Train - Director: Jim Jarmusch
- True Love (True Love) - Director: Nancy Savoca
1991
Grifters (The Grifters) - Director: Stephen Frears
- Hart auf Sendung (Pump Up the Volume) - Director: Allan Moyle
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - Director: John McNaughton
- The plot against Harry (The plot against Harry) - Director: Michael Roemer
- Angry sleeping (To Sleep with Anger) - Director: Charles Burnett
1992
The Lust of the Beautiful Rose (Rambling Rose) - Director: Martha Coolidge
- City of Hope (City of Hope) - Director: John Sayles
- Hangin 'Out - 4 Homeboys on the move (Hangin' with the Homeboys) - Director: Joseph B. Vasquez
- Homicide - Mordkommission (Homicide) - Director: David Mamet
- My Private Idaho (My Own Private Idaho) - Director: Gus Van Sant
1993
The Player - Director: Robert Altman
- Bad Lieutenant - Director: Abel Ferrara
- Gas Food Lodging - Director: Allison Anders
- Mississippi Masala - Director: Mira Nair
- One False Move - Director: Carl Franklin
1994
Short Cuts - Director: Robert Altman
- Equinox - Director: Alan Rudolph
- The Wedding Banquet (喜宴, Hsi yen ) - Director: Ang Lee
- Ruby in Paradise - Director: Victor Nuñez
- Much Ado About Nothing (Much Ado About Nothing) - Director: Kenneth Branagh
1995
Pulp Fiction - Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Bullets Over Broadway - Director: Woody Allen
- Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食 男女, Yǐn Shí Nán Nǚ ) - Director: Ang Lee
- Freddy's New Nightmare (New Nightmare) - Director: Wes Craven
- Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle - Directed by Alan Rudolph
1996
Leaving Las Vegas - Director: Mike Figgis
- The Addiction - Director: Abel Ferrara
- The Secret of Roan Babies (The Secret of Roan Inish) - Director: John Sayles
- Living in Oblivion - Director: Tom DiCillo
- Safe - Directed by Todd Haynes
1997
- The Funeral (The Funeral) - Director: Abel Ferrara
- Dead Man - Director: Jim Jarmusch
- Lone Star - Director: John Sayles
- Willkommen im Tollhaus (Welcome to the Dollhouse) - Director: Todd Solondz
1998
Apostle! (The Apostle) - Director: Robert Duvall
- Chasing Amy - Director: Kevin Smith
- Loved - Director: Erin Dignam
- Ulee's Gold - Director: Victor Nuñez
- Waiting for Guffman (Waiting for Guffman) - Director: Christopher Guest
1999
Gods and Monsters - Director: Bill Condon
- Claire Dolan - Director: Lodge Kerrigan
- The Hunted (Affliction) - Director: Paul Schrader
- Velvet Goldmine - Director: Todd Haynes
- Cries (A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries) - Director: James Ivory
2000s
2000
Election - Director: Alexander Payne
- Cookie's Fortune - Riot in Holly Springs (Cookie's Fortune) - Director: Robert Altman
- The Limey - Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Sugar Town - Directed by Allison Anders and Kurt Voss
- A true story - The Straight Story (The Straight Story) - Director: David Lynch
2001
Tiger & Dragon (臥虎藏龍; Wòhǔ Cánglóng ) - Director: Ang Lee
- Before Night Falls - Director: Julian Schnabel
- George Washington - Director: David Gordon Green
- Ghost Dog - Der Weg des Samurai (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai) - Director: Jim Jarmusch
- Requiem for a Dream - Director: Darren Aronofsky
2002
Memento - Director: Christopher Nolan
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Director: John Cameron Mitchell
- LIE - Long Island Expressway (LIE) - Director: Michael Cuesta
- Things Behind the Sun - Directed by Allison Anders
- Waking Life - Director: Richard Linklater
2003
Far from Heaven (Far from Heaven) - Director: Todd Haynes
- The Good Girl - Director: Miguel Arteta
- Lovely & Amazing - Director: Nicole Holofcener
- Secretary - Directed by Steven Shainberg
- Tully - Directed by Hilary Birmingham
2004
Lost in Translation - Directed by Sofia Coppola
- American Splendor - Directors: Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman
- In America - Director: Jim Sheridan
- Summer in New York (Raising Victor Vargas) - Director: Peter Sollett
- Shattered Glass - Director: Billy Ray
2005
Sideways - Director: Alexander Payne
- Baadasssss! - Director: Mario Van Peebles
- Kinsey - The Truth About Sex (Kinsey) - Director: Bill Condon
- Maria Full of Grace - Director: Joshua Marston
- Primer - Directed by Shane Carruth
2006
Brokeback Mountain - Director: Ang Lee
- Capote - Directed by Bennett Miller
- Good Night, and Good Luck. - Directed by George Clooney
- Three Burials - The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Director: Tommy Lee Jones
- The Squid and the Whale (The Squid and the Whale) - Director: Noah Baumbach
2007
Little Miss Sunshine - Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
- American Gun - Director: Aric Avelino
- Dead Girl - Director: Karen Moncrieff
- Half Nelson - Director: Ryan Fleck
- Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) - Director: Guillermo del Toro
2008
Juno - Director: Jason Reitman
- A Mighty Heart (A Mighty Heart) - Director: Michael Winterbottom
- I'm Not There - Directed by Todd Haynes
- Paranoid Park - Director: Gus Van Sant
- Butterfly and diving bell (Le scaphandre et le papillon) - Director: Julian Schnabel
2009
The Wrestler - Director: Darren Aronofsky
- Ballast - Director: Lance Hammer
- Frozen River - Director: Courtney Hunt
- Rachel Getting Married (Rachel Getting Married) - Director: Jonathan Demme
- Wendy and Lucy - Director: Kelly Reichardt
2010s
2010
Precious - Life is Precious (Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire) - Director: Lee Daniels
- (500) Days of Summer - Director: Marc Webb
- Amreeka - Director: Cherien Dabis
- A Russian Summer (The Last Station) - Director: Michael Hoffman
- Sin Nombre - Director: Cary Fukunaga
2011
Black Swan - Director: Darren Aronofsky
- 127 Hours - Director: Danny Boyle
- Greenberg - Director: Noah Baumbach
- The Kids Are All Right - Director: Lisa Cholodenko
- Winter's Bone - Director: Debra Granik
2012
The Artist - Director: Michel Hazanavicius
- 50/50 - Friends for (survival) life (50/50) - Director: Jonathan Levine
- Beginners - Director: Mike Mills
- The Descendants - Family and Other Affairs (The Descendants) - Director: Alexander Payne
- Drive - Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
- Take Shelter - A storm is coming (Take Shelter) - Director: Jeff Nichols
2013
Silver Linings (Silver Linings Playbook) - Director: David O. Russell
- Beasts of the Southern Wild - Director: Benh Zeitlin
- Bernie - Corpses pave his way - Director: Richard Linklater
- Keep the Lights On - Director: Ira Sachs
- Moonrise Kingdom - Director: Wes Anderson
2014
12 Years a Slave - Director: Steve McQueen
- All Is Lost - Director: JC Chandor
- Frances Ha - Director: Noah Baumbach
- Inside Llewyn Davis - Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen
- Nebraska - Director: Alexander Payne
2015
Birdman or ( The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
- Boyhood - Director: Richard Linklater
- Love goes strange ways (Love Is Strange) - Director: Ira Sachs
- Selma - Director: Ava DuVernay
- Whiplash - Director: Damien Chazelle
2016
Spotlight - Directed by Tom McCarthy
- Anomalisa - Directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
- Beasts of No Nation - Director: Cary Fukunaga
- Carol - Directed by Todd Haynes
- Tangerine - Director: Sean S. Baker
2017
Moonlight - Director: Barry Jenkins
- American Honey - Director: Andrea Arnold
- Chronic - Director: Michel Franco
- Jackie: The First Lady (Jackie) - Director: Pablo Larraín
- Manchester by the Sea - Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Get Out - Directed by Jordan Peele
- Call Me by Your Name - Director: Luca Guadagnino
- The Florida Project - Director: Sean Baker
- Lady Bird - Director: Greta Gerwig
- The Rider - Director: Chloé Zhao
If Beale Street Could Talk - Director: Barry Jenkins
- A Beautiful Day ( You Were Never Really Here ) - Director: Lynne Ramsay
- Eighth Grade - Director: Bo Burnham
- First Reformed - Director: Paul Schrader
- Leave No Trace - Directed by Debra Granik
2020s
The Farewell - Director: Lulu Wang
- Clemency - Director: Chinonye Chukwu
- Marriage Story - Director: Noah Baumbach
- The Black Diamond (Uncut Gems) - Director: Benny and Josh Safdie
- A hidden life (A Hidden Life) - Director: Terrence Malick
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards official rules & regulations at amazonaws.com (PDF file, accessed on January 18, 2016).