Indie Indeed: The most memorable moments in the history of the Independent Spirit Awards

In one of the most emotional speeches in the history of the show, newcomer Derek Luke brought his wife on stage with him after he won Best Male Lead for "Antwone Fisher." Luke thanked his wife for keeping him from moving home to New Jersey and handed her his award. At the end, he revealed in his acceptance speech that it wasn't his first Independent Spirit Awards ceremony, because he waited tables at the show four years earlier.

For his comeback performance in "The Wrestler," Mickey Rourke won Best Male at the 2009 Spirits. But the truly epic performance was the one he gave in his acceptance speech (extremely NSFW). He spent time encouraging people to hire Eric Roberts, who yelled at him "Accept your award!" from the crowd. He forgot the name of co-star Marisa Tomei, who played his stripper girlfriend, but admiringly said, "Not many girls can climb the pole. She climbed the pole, and she did it well." He kissed his director, Darren Aronofsky, on the mouth. He memorialized his recently deceased chihuahua. And he gave a shoutout to the local police in Santa Monica, saying, "They gave me a bed to sleep in 10 years ago. And I thank them — I asked them for two pillows, they told me to f— off."

Lasse Hallstrom, who won the first Best Foreign Feature Award for "My Life As A Dog," used his acceptance speech to ask for work. How serious was he? He gave out his phone number. Indie darling Holly Hunter might have been listening, because Hallstrom directed her in "Once Around" a year later.

In 1999, Ally Sheedy won for High Art and gave a legendarily long speech. She announced, “I’ve never been nominated for anything before! This may never happen again. I’m taking my f—ing time!” She also dragged Patricia Arquette on stage, who stood there awkwardly until she managed to run off during a pause. The next year, Hillary Swank won and defended Sheedy: “Look, I won, and when will I ever have the opportunity again, so I won’t SHUT UP!" (Swank never won again at the Spirits, but she did win another Oscar.)

Dennis Quaid won Best Male Lead in 1988 and used his speech to thank David Puttnam, the recently fired head of Coca-Cola-owned Columbia Pictures, who distributed "The Big Easy." Puttnam had lasted only a year after decrying agents, package deals for stars and the movies "Ishtar" and "Leonard Part 6," which starred Coke pitchman Bill Cosby. Quaid said he appreciated Puttnam “carrying the film into the U.S. over the objections of everyone over there at the Bill Cosby Studios.” Puttnam was right, but he was still fired, and Coke sold Columbia a year later.

Not only did Lupita Nyong'o win an Independent Spirit Award in her debut film role, she did it the same day she turned 31. Nyong'o told the audience, "Not a bad way to celebrate my birthday," before talking about how growing up in Kenya, she never understood what independent films were. And then she dedicated the award to her "beautiful mom," which really touched the audience, at least those who weren't shocked that the flawless Nyong'o was even a day older than 21.

2009 was a year of bad behavior from film actors, particularly Christian Bale's profane rant from the set of "Terminator Salvation," and Joaquin Phoenix's announcement that he quit acting to become a rapper, which no one believed. So at the Spirits, BaleMan (Steve Coogan) and Joaquin Phoenix (Frank Coraci) presented the Best Documentary award, and it predictably got out of control, with BaleMan cursing out Phoenix and stagehands and Phoenix muttering semi-coherently. The documentary award went to "Man On Wire," which was later remade as a studio movie, which is an incredibly indie thing to happen.

In what has become an annual tradition, Andy Samberg performed songs at the 2017 and 2018 shows. His first number was a "Non-Memoriam" song, because too many actors died that year, and listing the actors who were still alive was quicker. Also, he did it dressed as Eddie Vedder, for which he apologized mid-song. It got dumber and more wonderful in 2018, when Samberg dressed as Judd Nelson from "The Breakfast Club" and sang "Don't You Forget About Us," another half-assed parody song about inevitably losing independent film actors to the studios. Did his performance end with a fake freeze frame for no reason? You're goddamn right it did.

The awards season is long and full of interviews, press junkets and different awards shows in which you have to be on your best behavior. That's not the case at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, where there's no censorship. After months of good behavior promoting "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," Frances McDormand finally cut loose: "What I know about today, I get to swear. Do you know how hard it's been not to swear over the last couple of months? Because this awards convention goes on for-f—ing- ever. ... As Martin McDonagh knows, a well-placed 'f—' makes a sentence sing like nothing else." She gave a much more sedate speech when she won the Best Actress Oscar the next night.

One place where the Spirit Awards are way ahead of the Academy Awards is their recognition of diversity, though like the Academy, the Spirits had honored cis actors playing transgender characters ("Dallas Buyers Club," "Boys Don't Cry"), but not transgender performers themselves. That changed in 2016, when Mya Taylor became the first openly transgender performer to win a Spirit Award, for her role in "Tangerine." Taylor used the platform to encourage filmmakers to champion true diversity: “Maybe it's not the old classic Hollywood, but it is damn straight the Hollywood of today. There's very beautiful trans talent. You got to get out there and put it in your next movie."

While presenting Best First Feature at the 2004 Awards, Jake Gyllenhaal and Emily Mortimer joked about the controversy over screeners. It seems quaint now in the age of streaming, but the MPAA had banned the distribution of DVDs of films to awards voters, to discourage piracy. Mortimer explained why screeners were so important: "We’re not saying all independent films are depressing. Many of them are uplifting, as well as depressing." Gyllenhaal added that the "Hollywood elite" needed to be able to watch sad movies in a safe environment, "surrounded by friends, nurturing family and servants who can help them through the difficult awards screening season." It also included a 1-800 number for support, and honestly, people bingeing murder shows on Netflix could probably use it.

The late Brittany Murphy presented Best Debut Performance at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards, which, while potentially stressful, is a fairly simple task. Read the nominees, open the envelope, announce the winner, applaud. But for whatever reason, Murphy simply could not do it. She started to open the envelope after reading just one nominee, then did it again after reading just one more. She paused, she sputtered, she screwed up a name, and the stage manager came out twice to whisper instructions in her ear. Roger Ebert was convinced that it was a bit — "I had a front-row seat, and was convinced her timing was too good, her double-takes too perfect, her pauses too wicked, to even possibly be authentic." Anticlimactically enough, winner Nia Vardalos didn't show up to pick up the award, which is just as well because Murphy might have accidentally thrown it into the ocean.

John Waters emceed four Independent Spirit Awards in a row, and he remained a perennial presenter over the years. It's hard to select just one moment from Baltimore's favorite son, who once closed the show telling the crowd, "The next time you see a movie and they show a commercial, boo!" But we'll go with the show where Waters' opening monologue involved an elaborate story about getting jailed by the Motion Picture Association of America because "pirates stole and duplicated my copy of 'Pieces of April,'" only to have MPAA President Jack Valenti rush the stage, cuff him and hustle Waters off.

Laurence Fishburne introduced Samuel L. Jackson at the 1996 awards and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, This is Samuel L. Jackson. I am Laurence Fishburne. Please do not get us confused with each other again.” It still didn’t help this hapless news anchor in 1996 who confused Jackson with Fishburne in 2014.

At the 2011 show, Craig Robinson sang a sensual song about the special awards, but mainly he sounded like he wants to make love to the sponsor of said awards. “You see that fine brown whiskey over there? Precious filmmaking lady, you don’t need a lot of money to make your film, because Jameson helps you with your fine young audience award.” Robinson would return as an honoree in 2016, nominated for his role in "Morris from America."

Sometimes comedians get credit for being "brave" on stage because they tackle uncomfortable subjects or take unpopular positions. But that's not true bravery. Real bravery is dressing up as Mickey Rourke's character in "The Wrestler," knowing that he's on the premises and he was a professional boxer for years. In fact, after the spoof, Rourke said, "I'm going to beat your ass when I get out of here," but they posed for pictures together later. For his part, Wilson seemed more nervous about another long-haired legend, tweeting, "about to go make an ass of myself dressed as the Wrestler in a tent choc-a-bloc with stars and weird cold food. Michael Bolton is here.”

At the 1996 awards, Kevin Smith used a speech to talk about his follow-up to "Clerks," which got him Independent Spirit nominations for Best Screenplay and Best First Feature. “Look, I want to apologize for 'Mallrats.' I don't know what I was thinking.” He wasn’t really disavowing the film, just joking about bombing at the box office. Smith would return triumphantly with his third film, "Chasing Amy," which won Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Male for Jason Lee.

There is no Best Song award at the Spirits, but the show compensates by having songs about the Best Picture nominees, like in 2012 when Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome (aka Garfunkel & Oates) did a medley, including this ditty about "Drive": “You know that he can hack it/In his Members Only jacket/Gosling is a psycho/And we hope that he has Geico.”

Matthew McConaughey won Best Supporting Male in 2013 for his work in "Magic Mike" and gave a breezy speech about it, singing "I had to take my pants off to win a trophy/I had to drop my drawers to win an award," before talking about how five of his last six films had been indies, and it was the most fun he'd had in his career. The next year, he had gotten so much acclaim for "Dallas Buyers Club," though he seemed much more restrained. But that's restrained by McConaughey standards. Describing independent films, he said,  "It's not an autobahn film, it's not a freeway, it's not I-35, it's not even a two-lane highway. It's a feeder road. … Sometimes it's gravel, sometimes it's blacktop and sometimes it's dirt." It was a moving speech, but also one that would not have been out of place in one of his Lincoln commercials. McConaughey also acknowledged his indie, "Dazed and Confused" roots by throwing in an "Alright, alright, alright."

Sean Penn is acknowledged as a great actor, but he's not necessarily the most well-liked person. So when he won Best Male Lead for his performance in "Dead Man Walking," he channeled Sally Field's Oscars acceptance speech and deadpanned, "I guess this means you tolerate me, you really tolerate me." They tolerated Penn enough to nominate him again in 2008 for "Milk."

In 2013, Derek Connolly won Best First Screenplay for "Safety Not Guaranteed" and gave a long, presumably inebriated acceptance speech — he had a lot of trouble with the phrase "in all senses of the word" — but was rescued when Bryan Cranston met him on stage with a bottle of whiskey. When the bar opens at 10 a.m., things like this happen, although we won't rule out that it was a viral marketing campaign for Jameson. Connolly would later go on to write "Jurassic World" and "Kong: Skull Island," and threaten to sue a Tinder date for suggesting she’d blackmail him.

When "Pulp Fiction" hit the awards in 1995, Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary won for Best Screenplay. In his acceptance speech, Tarantino announced that since he didn't know if he'd win anything else, he'd say everything he wanted to in the first speech, and for any subsequent awards, he'd just say thanks. "So if I win, it's a real quick night." He did win two more awards, for Best Director and Best Feature (Samuel L. Jackson won Best Lead Male), and while the speeches weren't that short, by Tarantino dialogue standards, they were Kabuki theater. The show still clocked in at over three hours, so it's very fortunate "Pulp" swept.

Until 2000, the awards show featured a keynote address, given by the co-chair, which would rotate year to year. The most memorable of these came in 1992, when co-chair Jodie Foster delivered a speech called, "The Scum-Sucking Vampire Pig Theory of Hollywood." It’s about all of the shady business things that movie studios do in the ordinary course of doing business. Foster reportedly shocked the crowd, but she didn't hurt the crowd's feelings as much as when Good Machine founder James Schamus accused the very indies being celebrated at the awards of being corporations themselves. They stopped having a keynote address after that.

Though the Film Independent Spirit Awards don't actually have any technical categories, that didn't stop Illeana Douglas and Alec Baldwin from presenting some awards. Honors included an award for amassing the most credit card debt in making money, and The Shelf, awarded to Miramax for picking up the most movies and then never releasing them. Douglas added that the Weinsteins weren't available to pick up the awards as they were "ironing Gwynnie's dress." As of 2018, there is still no separate technical awards ceremony.

When Bill Murray won Best Supporting Male for "Rushmore," he wasn't there to attend the ceremony. However, he did write a speech for director Wes Anderson, who accepted in his stead, apologizing for his absence. “If I came to the Independent Spirit Awards, it would send the wrong message to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who I am still courting," he explained. "But I commend the IFP for giving this award to a major motion picture superstar like myself. It shows a lot of independence and a lot of spirit.” In 2004, Murray would win Best Leading Male for "Lost In Translation" but said he had no prepared remarks – "I didn't think it would be independent."

"Platoon" swept the Independent Spirit Awards in 1987, winning Best Feature, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay. It was a great night for Oliver Stone, but that didn't stop everyone from roasting him. Speaking about his decadelong struggle to get "Platoon" made, Stone said he and David Lynch "couldn't get arrested with Platoon and Blue Velvet in 1984." Emcee Buck Henry, hosting the ceremony for the first of what would be eight straight times, shot back, "Maybe you couldn't get work, but you could get arrested." Columbia chief David Puttnam warned Stone about the next day's Oscars: "Remember Oliver, you'll be speaking before 900 million people worldwide, every one of whom will be waiting for you to trip on your way to the stage."