Don T Miss Indies What To Watch In January Spirit Award Nominated Tv Edition

BLINDSPOTTING

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: STARZ Creators/Executive Producers: Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs Executive Producers: Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Ken Lee, Tim Palen, Emily Gerson Saines, Seith Mann Cast: Jasmine Cephas Jones, Jaylen Barron, Candace Nicholas-Lippman, Helen Hunt About: Casal and Diggs first wrote and appeared together in the 2018 feature version of Blindspotting, where the two IRL childhood buddies played best friends in Oakland, California. Recent parolee Collin (Diggs, a Spirit Awards alum for his role in the feature) and Miles (Casal) attempt to navigate Collin’s probation amid a city landscape fraught with crime and racial inequality. The STARZ series picks up six months after the events of the film but focuses entirely on a different character: Miles’ girlfriend, Ashley (Cephas Jones)–who, after Miles is arrested, is forced to move in with his mother, Rainey (Hunt, a 2013 Spirit Award winner for The Sessions) and half-sister Trish (Barron). Scoring two Spirit Award nominations, for Best New Scripted Series and Best Female Performance for Cephas Jones, the series has already been renewed for a second season. Best New Scripted Series Best Female Performance In a New Scripted Series

IT’S A SIN

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: HBO Max Executive Producers: Russell T. Davies, Peter Hoar, Nicola Shindler Cast: Olly Alexander, Nathaniel Curtis, Shaun Dooley Why We’re Excited: Also scoring two Spirit Award noms, prolific Welsh screenwriter and television producer Davies’ (A Very English Scandal, Doctor Who, Torchwood) new five-part limited series shines a much-needed spotlight on the generation of queer young people who lived through the AIDS epidemic in the United Kingdom. Set between 1981-1991 in London, the series centers on a group of gay men and their friends making their way as the HIV/AIDS crisis explodes in the 1980s. First airing on the British public service network Channel 4, the series soon became the most binge-watched series on the network’s streaming platform and has been credited for bringing about a recent surge in UK HIV testing. Best New Scripted Series Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series

RESERVATION DOGS

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: Hulu Creators/Executive Producers: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi Executive Producer: Garrett Basch Cast: Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor About: Filmed entirely in the city of Okmulgee in Eastern Oklahoma, Reservation Dogs is this year’s Spirit Award winner for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series. The half-hour dramedy focuses on four Native American teenagers growing up on the local reservation. A year after one of their close friends Daniel dies, the crew decides to honor his memory by adopting his dream of going to California. They’re willing to do almost anything to get there, committing a series of petty crimes and capers along the way with hilarious results. Featuring all Indigenous writers and directors and an almost all Indigenous cast, the critically acclaimed series has been renewed for a second season. Best New Scripted Series Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

When You Can Watch: Now Creator/Executive Producer: Barry Jenkins Executive Producers: Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Colson Whitehead, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt Cast: Thuso Mbedu, Aaron Pierre, Chase Dillon, William Jackson Harper, Joel Edgerton About: Multiple Spirit Award winner Barry Jenkins’ (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk) 10-part adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead was filmed entirely in Savannah, Georgia. The work of reimagined historical fiction follows Cora (South African actress Mbedu, also nominated for her role) as she escapes from a brutal Georgia plantation aboard a literal underground railway. With brutal slave hunter Arnold Ridgeway (Edgerton) hot on her heels throughout the harrowing journey, Cora is forced to fend for herself as the train pulls into each new stop to discover what further dangers America has in store. Best New Scripted Series Best Female Performance In a New Scripted Series

WE ARE LADY PARTS

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: Peacock Creator: Nida Manzoor Executive Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Surian Fletcher-Jones, Mark Freeland Cast: Anjana Vasan, Sarah Kameela Impey, Faith Omole About: This UK comedy follows the trials and travails of an all-female Muslim punk band, led by lead guitarist and Ph.D. student Amina (Vasan) and frontwoman Saira (Impey). An ambitious, music-driven project, veteran TV director and series creator Manzoor (Doctor Who) co-wrote and adapted Lady Parts’ cover songs and originals with her siblings Shez Manzoor (also the show’s composer), Sanya Manzoor and Benni Fregin. And if that wasn’t cool enough, the actors all play their own instruments onscreen. Besides its Best New Scripted Series nomination, Anjana Vasan is nominated for Best Female Performance. Best New Scripted Series Best Female Performance In a New Scripted Series

THE WHITE LOTUS

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: HBO Max Creator: Mike White Cast: Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario About: Over six episodes, this biting satirical dramedy from Spirit Awards favorite Mike White (The Good Girl, Beatriz at Dinner) follows the antics of guests and employees at an exclusive Hawaiian resort. Over the course of one week, a series of dark secrets begin to emerge to pierce the façade presented by the resort’s elegant guests–their seemingly picture-perfect lives falling apart amid the dubiously cheerful resort employees. Filmed entirely in Hawaii during the Fall of 2020 under very strict COVID-19 requirements, principal photography took place at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and other locations in Maui. Best Female Performance In a New Scripted Series

THEM: COVENANT

When You Can Watch: Now Creator: Little Marvin Cast: Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Alison Pill, Ryan Kwanten About: After a family tragedy in North Carolina in 1953, life for a Black family becomes unbearable, leading to a cross-country move to Los Angeles. Livia “Lucky” Emory (Ayorinde) and her WWII veteran husband, Henry (Thomas), move into the white neighborhood of Compton with their daughters after he lands a job as an engineer with an airplane manufacturer. Evil forces–both otherworldly and in the form of neighborhood bully Betty (Pill)–soon conspire to run this family out of town. Filmed in Atlanta and Los Angeles, the anthology series has been renewed for a second season. Best Female Performance In a New Scripted Series Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series

RUTHERFORD FALLS

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: Peacock Creator: Ed Helms, Michael Schur, Sierra Teller Ornelas Cast: Ed Helms, Michael Greyeyes, Jana Schmieding About: Nathan (Helms, of The Hangover and The Office fame) and Reagan (Mniconjou and Sicangu Lakota actor, writer and comedian Schmieding) have been friends most of their lives in their shared sleepy town, until a struggle to preserve Nathan’s family’s legacy threatens the friendship, as Reagan is torn between loyalty to her longtime friend and her tribe, the Minishonka Nation. Yet another win for Indigenous representation on- and off-screen, the sitcom from showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) reportedly features the largest Indigenous writers room in television. Best Female Performance In a New Scripted Series Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series

SQUID GAME

When You Can Watch: Now Where You Can Watch: Netflix Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su About: The biggest show to come out of 2021, South Korea’s dystopian survival drama feeds into worldwide viewers’ continued desire to see the poor stripped of any shred of dignity in their desperate attempts to seek financial relief, and in this case, remain alive. In the world of the show, 456 participants–all heavily in debt–are chosen to participate in a children’s game competition for a handsome cash prize. Unbeknownst to these participants, failure to win at each stage will result in their literal death. A brutal take on the economic and social disparities between the haves and have-nots, this Korean-language drama blew the streaming industry wide open last fall when it vastly surpassed the viewership of Netflix’s previous audience record-holder, Bridgerton, to become the streamer’s most-watched series, reportedly attracting more than 142 million subscriber accounts. Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series Full Spirit Awards nominee list here. The Film Independent Spirit Awards are supported by Premier Sponsor IFC and FIJI Water, the Official Water. To join Film Independent and vote on the Spirit Awards, please visit filmindependent.org/join The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity and inclusion in the film industry. To support our work with a donation, please click here.