Clint Bentley’s lyrical Denis Johnson adaptation Train Dreams won the top film award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, February 15, in Los Angeles, while Adolescence dominated the television categories. Both were released on Netflix.

Bentley also won best director for the film starring Joel Edgerton, whom he thanked profusely for “being the heartbeat of our film.” “We’re so grateful to Netflix,” Bentley said. “It’s very, very hard these days to film in the United States, but it’s worth it and we’re proud to be able to pull it off.”

Edgerton missed out on the top acting prize, however, which went to Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. The organization switched to gender-neutral acting categories in 2022.

Byrne was one of the few actors nominated for both a Spirit Award and an Oscar, for her performance as a mother on the edge. “I share this with Mary Bronstein, my writer-director who fought for eight years to get this movie made,” Byrne said. She added that this was a film that could have only been made independently. Her character, she said, is “fierce and ferocious and a middle-aged woman.”

Adolescence won new scripted series, best actor for Stephen Graham, best supporting actor for Erin Doherty and the breakthrough prize for Owen Cooper.

Gathering momentum ahead of the Academy Awards

The Secret Agent won the international feature prize. The film is also nominated for best picture and best international film at the Oscars. “I really believe that programming films in the cinemas is more and more a political act,” said director Kleber Mendonça Filho. He dedicated the award to the late actor Udo Kier, who was part of the ensemble of The Secret Agent.

Both Train Dreams and The Secret Agent gathered momentum ahead of the Academy Awards.

The Perfect Neighbor, about a deadly shooting incident in Florida constructed primarily from police bodycam footage, won best documentary. Filmmaker and producer Geeta Gandbhir thanked Netflix for “giving us a global platform.” It’s also up for the best documentary Oscar.

The awards sometimes overlap significantly with major Oscar contenders and winners, as it did with Anora, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, and sometimes not. Organizers limit eligibility to productions with budgets less than $30 million, meaning more expensive films like One Battle After Another are not in the running.