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'Get out' prevails at rain-soaked Indie Spirit awards

LOS ANGELES — “Get Out” was the big winner at a sodden, rain-swept Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Saturday, winning best feature and best director for Jordan Peele a day before Hollywood’s biggest night of the year.

Once onstage, dressed in pajamas and fuzzy slippers, McDormand expressed relief that this was one awards show she could curse at.

“I continue to be amazed that you let me get to the microphone. What, are you crazy?” she said. “But what I know about today is that I get to swear. Do you know how hard it’s been not to swear over the last couple of months? Because this award convention goes on forever,” she said, throwing in an f-bomb.

Other winners included Greta Gerwig, who took best screenplay for “Lady Bird”; Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, who won best first screenplay for “The Big Sick”; “A Fantastic Woman” for best international film; and “Faces Places,” best documentary.

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Held in a massive tent steps from the Santa Monica Pier, the Indie Spirits are the looser, fancy-free antecedent to Sunday’s ultra-formal Oscars and generally feature hip, youngish and irreverent hosts — this year it was Nick Kroll and John Mulaney — along with cameos from “Saturday Night Live” performers, past and present. This year proved no exception: Kristen Wiig did a bit as a 110-year-old actress, and Andy Samberg sang a sendup of “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” dressed like Judd Nelson in “The Breakfast Club.”

This year, thanks to inclement California weather — temperatures were in the 40s and 50s, and it rained for nearly two days, although the sun broke through around midday — it was a wet and chilly affair. The floor inside was drenched: Janney said the train of her dress was soaked, Chalamet nearly slipped on his way to the stage (and then appeared to apologize to the floor), and performer after performer warned one another that it was slippery onstage.

“I am so honored receiving this award here onstage on this Wakandan laundromat that you see before you,” Peele said after he accepted the director’s award from Spike Lee.

The Indie Spirits celebrate films with a budget cap of $20 million and are somewhat predictive of eventual Oscar winners. McDormand, Rockwell and Janney are heavy favorites, as are the films “A Fantastic Woman” and “Faces Places.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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CARA BUCKLEY © 2018 The New York Times

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