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31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)
Independent Spirit Awards logo

Spirit Awards 2016 Winners & Nominees

The 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016) took place on February 27, 2016. Spotlight won Best Feature and 3 more awards. Every winner and nominee in all 13 categories is below.

All 13 categories Most wins
categories
13
nominations
65
films nominated
33
winners
13
Held on
Best Feature
Spotlight
Headline winners

Spirit Awards 2016: The Winners

Spotlight won Best Feature against 4 other nominees. Brie Larson (Best Female Lead), Idris Elba (Best Supporting Male) and Mya Taylor (Best Supporting Female) took the main individual prizes.

Spotlight (2015) movie poster Best Feature

Best Feature

Spotlight

2015 · Biography, Drama, History · $98.7M worldwide

4 wins from 4 nominations at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)

  • Best Director
  • Best Screenplay
  • Best Editing

A team of investigative journalists at The Boston Globe, known as Spotlight, embarks on a courageous quest to expose a disturbing pattern of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Their meticulous reporting uncovers a decades-long cover-up, revealing how institutional failings allowed predators to act with impunity. The story’s revelations shake the foundations of the Church and have far-reaching consequences, sparking a global reckoning and challenging the abuse of power.

About Spotlight
Scoreboard

Spirit Awards 2016: Which Films Won the Most

Spotlight won 4 awards from 4 nominations. 9 films won at least once, while Anomalisa went home empty-handed from 4 nominations. Green is wins, blue is nominations.

  1. Spotlight (2015) movie poster
    Spotlight 4 / 4
    2015 · Biography, Drama · 4 wins from 4 nominations
  2. Beasts of No Nation (2015) movie poster
    Beasts of No Nation 2 / 5
    2015 · Drama, War · 2 wins from 5 nominations
  3. Carol (2015) movie poster
    Carol 1 / 6
    2015 · Drama, Romance · 1 win from 6 nominations
  4. Tangerine (2015) movie poster
    Tangerine 1 / 4
    2015 · Drama, Comedy · 1 win from 4 nominations
  5. The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) movie poster
    The Diary of a Teenage Girl 1 / 3
    2015 · Drama, Romance · 1 win from 3 nominations
  6. The Blue Room (2014) movie poster
    The Blue Room 1 / 3
    2014 · Thriller, Crime · 1 win from 3 nominations
  7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) movie poster
    Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 1 / 1
    2015 · Drama, Comedy · 1 win from 1 nomination
  8. The Look of Silence (2015) movie poster
    The Look of Silence 1 / 1
    2015 · Documentary · 1 win from 1 nomination
  9. Son of Saul (2015) movie poster
    Son of Saul 1 / 1
    2015 · Drama, History · 1 win from 1 nomination
  10. Anomalisa (2015) movie poster
    Anomalisa 0 / 4
    2015 · Drama, Fantasy · 0 wins from 4 nominations
Full results

All 13 Spirit Awards 2016 Categories: Winners & Nominees

13 categories and 65 nominations. The winner of each comes first, on a green row. Search for a film or a person, show only the winners, or jump straight to a category.

13 categories · 65 nominations

Jump to a category
Movie marathon

The Spirit Awards 2016 Best Feature Marathon

All 5 Best Feature nominees at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016), back to back: 9 hours 21 minutes.

Total running time 9h 21m 9 hours 21 minutes All 5 films
Longest
Beasts of No Nation 2h 17m
Shortest
Tangerine 1h 28m
By genre

The Genres Behind the Spirit Awards 2016 Winners

Drama led with 53 nominations across 25 films and won 11. A film with several genres counts for each one.

  1. Drama 11 wins · 53 nominations · 21%
  2. Thriller 6 wins · 14 nominations · 43%
  3. Romance 2 wins · 13 nominations · 15%
  4. Comedy 2 wins · 12 nominations · 17%
  5. History 5 wins · 8 nominations · 63%
  6. War 3 wins · 7 nominations · 43%
  7. Horror 1 win · 6 nominations · 17%
  8. Biography 4 wins · 5 nominations · 80%
  9. Documentary 1 win · 5 nominations · 20%
  10. Fantasy 0 wins · 4 nominations · 0%
2016 season

How the Rest of the 2016 Awards Season Voted

The other 13 ceremonies of 2016, with the winner of each top prize. Spotlight also won the top prize at 2 of them. The Revenant won the most of them: 3.

All 2016 awards
Earlier years

Previous Spirit Awards Ceremonies

The 6 ceremonies before this one, with the winner of each top prize. The Spirit Awards page has every year back to 1986.

Every Spirit Awards ceremony

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FAQ

Spirit Awards 2016: Questions & Answers

The top prize, the film that won the most, the most-nominated film, the individual winners and the date of the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016), answered from the results on this page.

Who won Best Feature at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)?

Spotlight (2015) won Best Feature. The other nominees were Anomalisa, Beasts of No Nation, Carol and Tangerine.

About Spotlight

Which film won the most awards at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)?

Spotlight (2015) won the most: 4 awards from 4 nominations. Beasts of No Nation was next with 2 wins.

Which film had the most nominations at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)?

Carol (2015) led with 6 nominations and won one of them.

Who won the acting awards at the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)?

Best Female Lead: Brie Larson for The Blue Room. Best Supporting Male: Idris Elba for Beasts of No Nation. Best Supporting Female: Mya Taylor for Tangerine.

When was the 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016)?

The 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards (2016) took place on February 27, 2016. The database has 13 categories and 65 nominations for it.