Nomadland was the big winner at Thursday's Film Independent Spirit Awards, taking best feature and best director for Chloé Zhao, among other awards.
In the acceptance speech, producer Peter Spears noted that Zhao met star Frances McDormand at a previous Spirit Award ceremony. "It began an incredible journey," he said of the annual awards show.
The Spirit Awards have long been the quirky, self-referential foil to the Oscars. Where the Academy Awards had the palatial Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the Spirit Awards had a tent in a beachside Santa Monica parking lot. "This year we aren't in a big tent on the beach but are in a place familiar to people in independent film: A completely empty theater," joked host Melissa Villaseñor in her.
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