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‘Past Lives,’ ‘American Fiction’ and ‘The Holdovers’ Are Big Winners at Independent Spirit Awards 

Celine Song receives the Best Feature award for "Past Lives" during the 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California, US, February 25, 2024. (Reuters)
Celine Song receives the Best Feature award for "Past Lives" during the 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California, US, February 25, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Past Lives,’ ‘American Fiction’ and ‘The Holdovers’ Are Big Winners at Independent Spirit Awards 

Celine Song receives the Best Feature award for "Past Lives" during the 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California, US, February 25, 2024. (Reuters)
Celine Song receives the Best Feature award for "Past Lives" during the 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California, US, February 25, 2024. (Reuters)

Celine Song’s quiet romance "Past Lives" won two of the biggest awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards Sunday afternoon, including best feature and best director. Other big winners were Cord Jefferson’s comedic satire "American Fiction," with Jeffrey Wright winning for lead performer; and Alexander Payne’s "The Holdovers," which won prizes for Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.

The 39th edition of the show was held Sunday in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, and streamed live on IMDb and Film Independent’s YouTube channels and X accounts.

"Thank you so much for letting me share what it feels like to be human, to love and be loved, and thank you for loving our film," Song said in accepting the directing prize.

Her film was among the top nominated at the show, alongside "May December," which won only one award (for Samy Burch's first screenplay) and "American Fiction," which fared better.

Wright won for playing a frustrated author who becomes wildly successful by writing something he hates in "American Fiction."

"You go to these awards shows, you kind of grow tired of them," Wright said. "And then you get one, and it kind of changes the vibe a little bit."

He noted that it was made independently because "nobody wanted to finance it."

The Spirit Awards sit firmly within the larger Hollywood awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on March 10. But with a budget cap of $20 million for nominees, the show celebrates films that sometimes go unheralded, or at least under-nominated, at the bigger shows.

Host Aidy Bryant called it "the only place in the world where $20 million is like no money."

Randolph continued her sweep of the broader season, winning best supporting performance for playing the grieving cook Mary Lamb in "The Holdovers." Not 24 hours ago, right across town, she also picked up the best supporting actress award at the SAG Awards.

"Independent films are the beating heart of our industry, and they are worth fighting for," Randolph said. She did, however, wish that they might have been able to afford heated seats while filming in Boston in the winter.

Randolph beat out the likes of Anne Hathaway ("Eileen"), Charles Melton ("May December") and Sterling K. Brown ("American Fiction") for the prize.

Her co-star, Sessa, later won the breakthrough prize.

"I promise it’s not all downhill from here," Sessa said, thanking his high school acting teachers.

Last year, "Everything Everywhere All At Once" swept the Spirit Awards before going on to do the same at the Oscars. But this year, many top Oscar contenders — including "Oppenheimer,Barbie" and "Killers of the Flower Moon" — would not have qualified.

Kaouther Ben Hania’s film " Four Daughters," which is nominated for the corresponding Oscar, won best documentary. And Justine Triet’s "Anatomy of a Fall," also nominated for best picture at the Oscars, won best international feature over "The Zone of Interest."

"Los Angeles has a special place in my heart. It’s the city of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands," Triet said. "Without discovering them at their films at the age of 20, I wouldn’t have had the desire to make my own films and I wouldn’t be here today."

The Cassavetes ethos actually has its own award, honoring a film made for under $1 million. That prize went this year to "Fremont," about an Afghan translator working for a Chinese fortune cookie factory.

The show had some unexpected background noise, from one man with a loudspeaker conducting a pro-Palestine protest outside the tent that lasted for some time.

"We are at the beach, and people are celebrating their freedom of speech," Bryant said.

The shouting outside disrupted Jim Gaffigan’s tribute to "Jury Duty" and many more winners’ speeches. Comedian Jimmy O. Yang, speaking from the stage to present the best cinematography award, assumed it was a heckler outside.

Later, "Fremont" filmmaker Babak Jalali said he was sure that what was being said outside the tent was much more important than anything he had to say.

The Spirit Awards also honor television. Netflix’s "Beef" won best new scripted series and Ali Wong picked up best lead performance.

Nick Offerman won best supporting performance in a new scripted series for his turn in "The Last of Us." And 11-year-old actor Keivonn Montreal Woodard also won the breakthrough performance award for a new scripted series for "The Last of Us," giving his acceptance speech in American Sign Language.

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Phil Collins, Lauryn Hill, INXS, Iron Maiden, Luther Vandross and Shakira Get Rock Hall Nominations

Phil Collins performs at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on March 9, 2018, left, Lauryn Hill performs during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup in Washington on Dec. 5, 2025, center, and Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo)
Phil Collins performs at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on March 9, 2018, left, Lauryn Hill performs during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup in Washington on Dec. 5, 2025, center, and Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo)
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Phil Collins, Lauryn Hill, INXS, Iron Maiden, Luther Vandross and Shakira Get Rock Hall Nominations

Phil Collins performs at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on March 9, 2018, left, Lauryn Hill performs during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup in Washington on Dec. 5, 2025, center, and Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo)
Phil Collins performs at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on March 9, 2018, left, Lauryn Hill performs during the draw for the 2026 soccer World Cup in Washington on Dec. 5, 2025, center, and Shakira performs during the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo)

Phil Collins, Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, INXS, Iron Maiden, Luther Vandross and Shakira are some of the 2026 nominees for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a wide net that includes rap, metal, R&B, hip-hop, Britpop, blues rock and pop.

The hall revealed the list of 17 performer nominees Wednesday, a list that also includes Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, Pink, New Edition, Sade and the Wu-Tang Clan, The Associated Press reported.

Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order return to the nominations after missing induction last year. The list this time also repeats two sets of musical brothers who have had public feuds and recent reunions — The Black Crowes and Oasis.

Collins, with such hits as “In the Air Tonight” and “One More Night,” has earned eight Grammys, including album of the year in 1985 for “No Jacket Required.” Hill's “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” made history as the first hip-hop album to win the Grammy for album of the year in 1999.

Carey, nominated in 2024 and 2025, has had 19 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, while soul-jazz vocalist Sade, also nominated in 2024, had such soft rock hits as “Smooth Operator” and “The Sweetest Taboo.” The Wu-Tang Clan have been hailed as rap innovators since their game-changing 1993 debut album “Enter the Wu-Tang.”

INXS ruled the late 1980s charts with hits like “Need You Tonight,” “Devil Inside” and “New Sensation.” Two-time Grammy winner Etheridge is best known for her songs “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One.” Iron Maiden helped power the new wave of British heavy metal with iconic albums like “The Number of the Beast.”

New Edition had the hits “Cool It Now” and “Candy Girl,” while Shakira has been lauded for her ability to bridge Latin music with rock and pop. Pink has had four No. 1 songs and three No. 1 albums, including “The Truth About Love.”

Ten of the 17 nominees are on the ballot for the first time: Buckley, Collins, Etheridge, Hill, INXS, New Edition, Pink, Shakira, Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan.

Vandross, who sold more than 25 million albums and had the hits “Here and Now” and “Any Love,” died in 2005. Buckley, whose 1994 debut album “Grace” is widely acclaimed, died in 1997.

“This diverse list of talented nominees recognizes the ever-evolving faces and sounds of Rock & Roll and its continued impact on youth culture,” John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a statement.

The 2026 inductees will be revealed in April, along with inductees entering the hall under three special committee categories: Musical influence, musical excellence and the Ahmet Ertegun Non-Performer Award.

Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees will be voted on by more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals.

Last year, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Soundgarden, Joe Cocker, Salt-N-Pepa, The White Stripes, Carol Kaye, Nicky Hopkins, Lenny Waronker, Thom Bell and Warren Zevon all were inducted.

Entertainment

Movie Review: ‘Man on the Run’ Chronicles Paul McCartney’s Post-Beatles Long and Winding Road 

Paul McCartney, of Paul McCartney and Wings, performs at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY on May 21, 1976. (AP)
Paul McCartney, of Paul McCartney and Wings, performs at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY on May 21, 1976. (AP)
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Movie Review: ‘Man on the Run’ Chronicles Paul McCartney’s Post-Beatles Long and Winding Road 

Paul McCartney, of Paul McCartney and Wings, performs at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY on May 21, 1976. (AP)
Paul McCartney, of Paul McCartney and Wings, performs at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY on May 21, 1976. (AP)

If Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” was the supreme document of the Beatles’ final moments together and of their dissolution, Morgan Neville’s “Man on the Run” is a kind of sequel.

It begins in late 1969, just months after Savile Row rooftop concert. The Beatles have broken up. Paul McCartney has seemingly disappeared. There are even rumors that he’s dead. On a remote farm in Scotland, a confused and distraught McCartney wonders whether he’ll write “another note, ever.”

But the most surprising thing about revisiting this tumultuous, tabloid-ready period of McCartney’s life is a simple fact. When the Beatles broke up, McCartney was 27 years old. To say he had lived a lifetime by then would be an understatement. By just the sheer enormity of their production and colossal cultural impact, you might easily mistakenly put McCartney in middle age by then.

“Man on the Run,” premiering Friday on Prime Video, is the story of everything that came after. McCartney, an executive producer, is never seen sitting for an interview, but his off-camera musings mark the movie, a chronicle of self-renewal. For McCartney, kept boyish by the Beatles, the band's end meant a sudden coming of age.

“I had to look inside myself and find something that wasn’t the Beatles,” McCartney says in the film.

How you feel about McCartney’s post-Beatles career might inform how you feel about “Man on the Run.” For Neville, the celebrated documentary filmmaker of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” “Piece by Piece” and “20 Feet From Stardom,” it’s a period that offers no neat narrative, but — quite unlike the mythic Beatles years — something more like the ups and down of life, with regrets and triumphs along the way.

It didn’t get off to a good start. McCartney, blamed for the Beatles breakup, was guilt-ridden. His first records were a disappointment. Singing with Linda McCartney, his wife, wasn’t greeted well. A 1973 TV special that included a rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was, to put it a mildly, a misjudgment. A curious feature of McCartney’s largely sunny disposition is a nagging self-loathing.

“If I hear someone damning Paul McCartney, I tend to believe them,” he says, referencing the Beatles split.

“Get Back” offered a revelatory window into the group’s dynamics that put many of the old views of McCartney to bed. Comparisons are tough — “Get Back” is one of the greatest docs of the century — but Jackson’s film, drawn largely from footage shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, was also incredibly intimate. It captured not only the band’s individual relationships but the songwriting process in real time. (The emergence of “Get Back” from McCartney’s strumming and humming stands as one of the great sequences in documentary film.)

“Man on the Run” lacks that sense of closeness. By keeping the film in archival — the documentary is full of family photos and home movies — and without present-day talking heads, Neville lets us experience McCartney’s post-Beatles years as he did. It comes as a sacrifice, though, to a nearness to McCartney — and to the creation of his solo songs — that might have deepened the film.

The real arc of “Man on the Run” is building toward the creation of McCartney's first post-Beatles band, Wings. It’s in some ways an unlikely centerpiece. In the revolving makeup of the band, Denny Laine was the only permanent member outside Paul and Linda. On the other hand, Wings’ “Band on the Run” is the best album McCartney produced after the Beatles, and the clear culmination of years of struggle. If you needed one, this is your cue to go play “Jet” loud.

It turns out, to no one’s surprise, it’s hard to move on after being in the Beatles — especially for someone like McCartney who believed so sincerely in the band. Like its subject, “Man on the Run” inevitably pales next to films of the Beatles heyday. But it’s a meaningful companion piece about the end of an era and the start of a long and winding road.

Entertainment

Robert Carradine, ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ and ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Star, Dies at 71

Robert Carradine appears at the 24th Annual "A Night at Sardi's" in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 9, 2016. (AP)
Robert Carradine appears at the 24th Annual "A Night at Sardi's" in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 9, 2016. (AP)
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Robert Carradine, ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ and ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Star, Dies at 71

Robert Carradine appears at the 24th Annual "A Night at Sardi's" in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 9, 2016. (AP)
Robert Carradine appears at the 24th Annual "A Night at Sardi's" in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 9, 2016. (AP)

Robert Carradine, the youngest of his prolific Hollywood family and whose biggest hit was the 1984 comedy “Revenge of the Nerds,” has died at 71.

In a Tuesday statement to news outlets, his family said he lived with bipolar disorder for two decades and died by suicide.

“We want people to know it, and there is no shame in it,” his brother Keith Carradine told Deadline. “It is an illness that got the best of him, and I want to celebrate him for his struggle with it, and celebrate his beautiful soul. He was profoundly gifted, and we will miss him every day.”

Known for both his film and television work, Robert Carradine worked steadily in the industry for over 40 years. Though he collaborated with some of the most respected directors of the day, he never gained the worldwide recognition of his more famous siblings Keith Carradine (also the father of Martha Plimpton) and half-brother David Carradine, who died in 2009.

Robert Carradine, a Los Angeles native and son to character actor John Carradine, was introduced to audiences with roles on the television series “Bonanza” in 1971 and in the John Wayne Western “The Cowboys” in 1972.

Despite his family background, acting wasn't his first calling, though.

“I always had a passion to be a race car driver, and that’s what I thought I was going to do, and at some penultimate moment ... I think I was sitting with my brother David when ‘The Cowboys’ was being cast, and they were interested in David as the bad guy, and he didn’t want to be the guy that shot John Wayne in the back,” Carradine recalled in a 2013 interview with Popdose. “But he said, ‘You know, it is called The Cowboys, and they’re meeting all these young guys. Why don’t you go in?’”

In addition to starring in a short-lived television spinoff of “The Cowboys,” and appearing alongside David Carradine in his popular ABC series “Kung Fu,” he would go on to nab roles in Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets,” Hal Ashby’s Vietnam drama “Coming Home,” and Samuel Fuller’s World War II film “The Big Red One.”

The heights of his brother David's success eluded Robert Carradine, but the two could often be seen in the same projects, including in Walter Hill’s “The Long Riders” and Paul Bartel’s “Cannonball.”

Robert Carradine’s biggest hit would come in 1984 with the off-color comedy “Revenge of the Nerds,” in which where he played head nerd Lewis Skolnick, with his abrupt, infectious and guttural laugh. He reprised the role for the big-screen sequel and two made-for-television follow-ups, and continued to pay homage to the beloved character with a guest role on the series “Robot Chicken” and as a co-host (with “Revenge of the Nerds” co-star Curtis Armstrong) of the pop culture competition show “King of the Nerds,” which aired for three seasons.

In the 2000s, Carradine gained small-screen success in The Disney Channel’s “Lizzie McGuire” as the eponymous character’s father.

“It’s really hard to face this reality about an old friend,” Hilary Duff, who played Lizzie McGuire, wrote on Instagram. “There was so much warmth in the McGuire family and I always felt so cared for by my on-screen parents. I’ll be forever grateful for that. I’m deeply sad to learn Bobby was suffering.”

Work remained consistent even if the projects diminished in prestige and quality. Then Quentin Tarantino, ever the champion of fading character actors, cast Carradine in “Django Unchained” as one of the trackers in the 2012 film after seeing a “very furry” photograph, as Carradine told Popdose.

In 2015, Carradine was cited for a Colorado crash that injured him and his wife, Edith. They later divorced, after more than 25 years of marriage.

Carradine's survivors include his three children, actor Ever Carradine, Marika Reed Carradine and Ian Alexander Carradine.

“Whenever anyone asks me how I turned out so normal, I always tell them it’s because of my dad. I knew my dad loved me, I knew it deep in my bones, and I always knew he had my back,” Ever Carradine wrote on Instagram. “I think it’s partly because we basically grew up together. Twenty years age difference really isn’t that much, and while I never ever thought of him as a sibling, I did always think of him as my partner. We were in it together.”