Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” “Drive My Car” and “Summer of Soul” were among the big winners at the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards Sunday. The ceremony hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally was held in a tent by the beach in Santa Monica, broadcast on AMC and IFC. It is the cool, casual counterpart to some of the more traditional film awards shows. “If you don’t win, you can just walk straight into the ocean,” Offerman said. Read:Top Heist Movies of 2021: Journey to Crime World via Motion Picture Gyllenhaal won best feature, director and best screenplay for her adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel “The Lost Daughter.” Through tears, Gyllenhaal said that more than anything she believes in love. She was effusive in her praise for her crew. “You were the first people to tell me I was a director,” she said. “Thank you to Netflix — I can’t even believe this — for your support. … Nobody ever makes their first movie and comes out loving their financiers.” “I love independent film,” Gyllenhaal added. “I grew up making independent film.” Japan’s “Drive My Car, which has also been nominated for a best picture Oscar, picked up best international feature. Taylour Paige won best female lead for “Zola,” which was based on a Twitter thread about a wild trip to Florida. “Wow, I am in shock. I wrote something because I’m not eloquent and I’m drunk,” Paige said. She thanked her grandmother who passed away on the day she got word of her nomination and Zola for, “knowing that your story was worth telling.” Simon Rex won best male lead for playing an ex-porn star in Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket.” Rex said his career was in the dumps before Baker called him for the shoestring film. “I’m reeling from the whole experience,” Rex said. “This is basically a glorified student film…I’m grateful and humbled.” Mullally and Offerman got the show off to a lively start, both in three piece suits and vests with no shirt underneath. Sarah Silverman made an appearance in a pre-taped segment offering her services as a backup host because Mullally and Offerman joined Twitter “before 2015.” The married co-hosts said they’d hoped to be the biggest Hollywood couple in the room and were dismayed that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard were there to upstage them. Read:Screen Actors Guild Awards to offer Oscars preview “A-listers and indie stars? Pick a lane you greedy bastards,” Offerman said. They acknowledged Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Offerman said he hopes “Putin (expletive) off and goes home” and implored the audience to send him off with a “Spirit Awards salute.” Many raised their hands with a middle finger. The show’s honorary chair Kristen Stewart also spoke about the war. “We’re compelled to stand with the people of Ukraine,” Stewart said. “We stand with the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing this war.” Historically, the Spirit Awards are held on the Saturday afternoon before the Oscars, but this year moved up a few weeks. “Summer of Soul” won best documentary. The film brings back to life the largely forgotten Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. “I’m not going to cry right now, I’m not, I’m not,” “Summer of Soul” director Questlove said. Troy Kotsur got another boost before the Oscars, winning best supporting actor for “CODA.” He also won the Screen Actors Guild prize. “I can feel the spirit of the arts and we can celebrate together,” Kotsur said. “Squid Game’s” Lee Jung-jae also followed up his SAG win with a Spirit Award. Marlee Matlin, who presented the first screenplay award to Michael Sarnoski for “Pig,” implored the screenwriters to think of deaf actors when crafting scripts. Andrew Garfield made an appearance to present the Robert Altman Award to his friend Fran Kranz, who he acted with in a Mike Nichols play. Kranz’s debut “Mass” is a small ensemble about a mediation in the aftermath of a school shooting between parents of a victim and parents of the perpetrator. Best supporting female went to Ruth Negga, for her turn in Rebecca Hall’s “Passing.” A technical glitch muted the first part of her virtual speech. The black-and-white Netflix film also won best cinematography, for Edu Grau The show can sometimes serve as a preview of what will happen on Oscar night. Last year, Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” picked up best feature and director at the Spirit Awards before going on to win the top prizes at the Oscars. “Moonlight,” “Spotlight,” “Birdman” and “12 Years a Slave” also all won at the Spirits before taking best picture at the Oscars. Because of their production budgets, many top awards contenders this year were not eligible, including “Belfast,” “King Richard” and “The Power of the Dog.” To be considered, films must have cost less than $22.5 million to make.

Maggie Gyllenhaal's Elena Ferrante adaptation “The Lost Daughter" won four Gotham Awards including best feature film at the 31st Gotham Awards, the annual New York independent film celebration that serves as a boozy kickoff to Oscar season. Gyllenhaal won breakthrough director and best screenplay for her directorial debut, and star Olivia Colman shared the award for outstanding lead performance with Frankie Faison, “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain,” a drama based on the 2011 police shooting in White Plains, New York. “The Lost Daughter,” a Netflix release, opens in theaters Dec. 17. As one of the first stops in the long march to the Oscars, Monday evening's Gothams was the first real attempt since the pandemic began to summon all the season's usual glitz and pomp. Stars including Kristen Stewart, Tessa Thompson and Dakota Johnson walked the red carpet. Inside the crowded banquet hall, attendees were required to provide proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test. Last year's Gotham Awards (where “Nomadland” won the top award) was held virtually, with winners accepting awards by Zoom and an online poker platform deployed to digitally sit guests at tables. This year, even with the recent discovery of the omicron variant spooking a film industry still trying to rebound from the pandemic, the Gothams got back to normal — even while tweaking traditions. Read:Oscar-winning Japanese costume designer Wada dies For the first time, the Gothams were presented without gendered acting categories. While the season's top award shows — the Oscars, the Emmys, the Tonys — haven't yet embraced such a move, the Gothams are part of a growing number of awards bodies, including the Grammys and the MTV Film and TV Awards, to ditch “best actor" and “best actress.” Several times during Monday night's show that was applauded. Ethan Hawke, a co-winner for his performance in the series “The Good Lord Bird,” said he never understood the separate categories in the first place. “True talent shines through the divisions meant to separate us,” said “Billions” actor Asia Kate Dillon, a presenter, who identifies as nonbinary. Other borders seemed to disintegrate at the Gothams, once a more narrow celebration of independent film. Among the series winners was Netflix's “Squid Game,” the pop-culture sensation that has been watched for more than 2 billion hours, according to the streaming service. At the Gothams, speeches have often exalted the hard work and sometimes lesser-seen rewards of indie film. “CODA,” the celebrated coming-of-age drama about a hearing daughter in a deaf family, won several awards. Troy Kotsur, the veteran deaf actor who plays the film's fisherman father, won outstanding supporting performance. Emilia Jones, who stars as the daughter, won breakthrough performer. After an award-winning debut at a virtual Sundance Film Festival, the film's awards hopes had seemed to lag somewhat after a muted streaming debut on Apple TV+ in August. But the Gothams gave “CODA” a boost. "First off, I’m absolutely handless right now,” Kotsur said through sign language, shaking his hands. Nominees and winners (except for best film) are chosen by juries for the Gothams. In a few categories, they elected multiple winners — like for outstanding lead performance where Colman and Faison both won from a pool of 10 nominees. Other winners included Ryusuke Hamaguchi's intimate epic “Drive My Car” for best international film and Jonas Poher Rasmussen's “Flee," an animated film about an Afghanistan migrant's life, for best documentary. Read:Disney’s 'Eternals' tops domestic box office for 2nd weekend But the Gothams also trot out a number of tribute awards, some of them going to a handful of filmmakers and performers expected to play starring roles throughout awards season. Those included honors for Jane Campion, director of “The Power of the Dog"; Stewart for her performance at Princess Diana in “Spencer”; Peter Dinklage for the upcoming “Cyrano”; and the cast of Jeymes Samuel's Black Western “The Harder They Fall.” Often, the tribute introductions are as dramatic as the acceptance speeches. “Spencer” director Pablo Larrain, alongside Julianne Moore, told Stewart that she changed his life and called her “a miracle of cinema.” “I feel so visible to him,” Stewart said. Dinklage, introduced with exuberance by Hawke ("If he was British, he'd be a knight"), stood aside and went “off-podium” for his speech because, he noted, the lectern was too high for him. “The podium, not me,” he said. “Although...” But Dinklage, who plays Cyrano de Bergerac in the film, spoke warmly about his life in movies and his love of “you tribe of weirdos.” “When it's good, it's not precious,” said Dinklage of acting. “It's work.”