‘Past Lives,’ ‘May December’ and ‘American Fiction’ Lead Spirit Award Nominations

 US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)
US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)
TT

‘Past Lives,’ ‘May December’ and ‘American Fiction’ Lead Spirit Award Nominations

 US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)
US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)

Celine Song’s "Past Lives," Todd Haynes’ "May December" and Cord Jefferson’s "American Fiction" got a leading five nominations, including best feature, from the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Natalie Morales and Joel Kim Booster announced the nominees Tuesday on a YouTube livestream.

Song’s quietly romantic film, starring Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as childhood friends who reconnect later in life, earned nominations for her direction, script and for both actors. "May December," about an actress preparing to play a Mary Kay Letourneau-like role got nods for Natalie Portman, Charles Melton and screenwriter Samy Burch. MGM’s "American Fiction," featuring Jeffrey Wright as a frustrated novelist, got recognition for Wright, Erika Alexander and Sterling K. Brown. Jefferson was nominated for his script but not for his direction, however.

It was a good morning for A24. In addition to the nominations for "Past Lives," the indie film company received 11 overall for "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,Earth Mama" and "The Zone of Interest." Kelly Reichardt’s "Showing Up" was also named winner of the Robert Altman Award, which is given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Michelle Williams plays a small-time sculptor in the film, leading an ensemble that includes André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch and Amanda Plummer.

Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers," about a curmudgeonly teacher played by Paul Giamatti, got four nominations including for cinematography, best screenplay, best supporting performance for Da’Vine Joy Randolph and best breakthrough for newcomer Dominic Sessa. Neither Payne nor Giamatti were nominated.

Directing nominees were: Andrew Haigh ("All of Strangers"); Ira Sachs ("Passages"); William Oldroyd ("Eileen"); and Haynes and Song.

The Spirit Awards limit eligibility to productions with budgets of $30 million or less, meaning films like "Oppenheimer,Maestro" and "Poor Things" did not qualify for nominations.

Lead performance nominees include Wright, Lee, Yoo, Portman, Jessica Chastain ("Memory"), Trace Lysette ("Monica"), Judy Reyes ("Birth/Rebirth"), Andrew Scott ("All of Us Strangers"), Franz Rogowski ("Passages") and Teyana Taylor ("A Thousand and One").

Supporting performance nods went to Noah Galvin ("Theater Camp"), Anne Hathaway ("Eileen"), Glenn Howerton ("BlackBerry"), Marin Ireland ("Eileen"), Catalina Saavedra ("Rotting in the Sun") and Ben Whishaw ("Passages"), in addition to the aforementioned Melton, Randolph, Brown and Alexander.

NFL veteran Marshawn Lynch was also nominated for his breakthrough performance in the wild high school comedy "Bottoms."

Films nominated for best international film include both Sandra Hüller films, Justine Triet’s "Anatomy of a Fall" and Jonathan Glazer’s "The Zone of Interest," from Poland, as well as Denmark/Iceland’s "Godland," Nigeria’s "Mama Wata" and Mexico’s "Tótem."

Last year’s big winner was " Everything Everywhere All At Once," which accepted seven awards including best feature, best director and acting prizes for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan – categories in which it would go on to win Oscars.

Josh Welsh, the president of Film Independent, said the spirit awards look for films and shows that, "demonstrate the uniqueness of vision, original, provocative subject matter, economy of means and diversity, both on screen and off."

The Spirit Awards also recognize television series. The nominees include "Jury Duty," for best series and best ensemble cast, "Beef" for series, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, and "The Last of Us" which got acting nods for Bella Ramsey, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman. Billie Eilish was also nominated for "Swarm."

Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant is hosting the show, which will take place on Feb. 25 in Santa Monica, California. The awards will be streamed live on IMDb and Film Independent’s YouTube channels.



Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
TT

Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.