SANTA MONICA—Talk about a weekend of awards because this past weekend was busy with the Film Independent Spirit Awards, NAACP Image Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards all being held before the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2. First up was the 40th Film Independent Spirit Awards that were held Saturday afternoon, February 22 in Santa Monica.

“Anora” was the big victor of the night taking home three prizes including, Best Feature besting out movies like “Sing Sing,” “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance” and “I Saw the TV Glow.” The dark comedy also earned a Best Director victory for Sean Baker, who is looking stronger and stronger as the favorite for the Best Director Oscar in a week.

The film’s star, Mikey Madison added another piece of hardware this awards season winning the Spirit Award for Best Lead Performance. Yes, I forget that the Spirit Awards recently did away with separate categories for Actor and Actress. It’s just one big pot, which truly makes it competitive as hell when you look at all the contenders for Supporting and Lead. I wonder if the other award shows would ever consider such a thing. I don’t think so.

Best Screenplay went to Jesse Eisenberg for “A Real Pain.” Important to note that Baker was not nominated for the script he penned for “Anora” which makes me wonder if he would have won if he had been nominated. Sean Wang won the prize for Best First Screenplay for “Didi,” and the film also won Best First Feature. For Best Supporting Performance it was Kieran Culkin who continued his dominance for “A Real Pain.” While Best Breakthrough Performance was heralded to Maisy Stella for “My Old Ass.”

“Nickel Boys” won for Best Cinematography, while “September 5” won the trophy for Best Editing. The Robert Altman Award went to “His Three Daughter” and Best Documentary was crowned to “No Other Land.” “Flow” won the Best International Film prize. Sarah Winshall won the Producers Award, while Sarah Friedland won the Someone to Watch Award for “Familiar Touch.”

If the Spirit Awards told us anything, it is looking clearer that “Anora” might be the movie to beat after “Emilia Perez” crashed and burned. However, that can all change with the Screen Actors Guild Awards which might be the stronger indicator of where Oscar lands in less than a week with its choices being announced on Sunday.