With the prestigious Academy Awards set to air tonight, some may forget about the more humble Film Independent Spirit Awards that took place on Saturday (Feb. 8). As Aubrey Plaza said in her opening monologue while serving as host of the Spirit Awards, it's "the second most important award show of the entire weekend." While the Spirit Awards may not be the most talked-about, it often gets things right where Oscars get them wrong. One of the biggest disappointments of the 2020 Oscars - ahead of the actual ceremony at least - was that Adam Sandler did not receive a Best Actor nomination for his role of Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems. Well, we can celebrate the fact that the Spirit Awards recognized his performance and even awarded him for it.
During his acceptance speech for the Best Male Lead prize, Sandler used a goofy accent, as he tends do, while joking about his Oscars snub. He equated winning a Spirit Award rather than an Oscar to winning Best Personality in a high school yearbook rather than Best Looking. However, he still showed appreciation for the honour he received. "Then all those feather-haired douchebag motherfuckers get their Oscars tomorrow night," Sandler said. "Their handsome good looks will fade in time, while our independent personalities will shine on forever." Later in his speech, he breaks from his accent to earnestly express his gratitude for the Safdie Brothers - the directors of Uncut Gems - whose appearances he compares to those of "homeless rabbis".