According to two separate sources, the Independent Spirit Awards (ISA) managed to attract only 46,000 viewers.

This is a total catastrophe. At Showbiz 411, Roger Friedman writes, “The Spirit Awards long ago lost their relevance or interest,” commenting that this is a “sad sign of the decline of indie filmmaking.”

That’s because independent movies are no longer anything close to “independent.” When you go back to when independent filmmaking was truly independent, you were hit with gem after gem — Reservoir Dogs (1992), Clerks (1994), Slacker (1990), Roger and Me (1989), Blood Simple (1987), She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Evil Dead II (1987), Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Memento (2000), Happiness (1998), Swingers (1996), The Bad Lieutenant (1992), In the Company of Men (1997)…I could go on and on, right up until the record scratch of about 2005.

I’m not saying we don’t get the occasional decent independent movie, but for a time, “independent film” meant exciting, new, different, complicated, thematically driven, bold, entertaining…Today it means the opposite of “independent.” It’s naked conformity, predictable, trite, simple-minded, shallow, smug, and politically driven.

There was a time when the ISAs felt more relevant than the Oscars because that’s where all the action was. While the Academy was handing out Best Picture trophies to forgettable, overblown, and dull features like The English Patient (1996), Chicago (2002), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Crash (2005), the ISAs were rewarding (and by extension, giving life to) Best Picture winners like Pulp Fiction (1994), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), The Apostle (1997), Sideways (2004), and Brokeback Mountain (2005).

But like they have in mainstream Hollywood, the Woke Gestapo have infiltrated the indie film world, and now the movies suck, and no one cares. Okay, maybe 46,000 care, but those 46,000 are almost certainly made up of industry people. Normal people were watching The Green Berets Sunday night.

In 2023, the ISAs aired on IFC (the Independent Film Channel) and only drew 60,000 viewers. So it was demoted to YouTube, where the show became available to watch for anyone with an internet connection, and only 46,000 tuned in.

World of Reel reassures us we didn’t miss anything…

The awards were gender-free, which meant there was only one award in each category — I still don’t get how this benefits anyone other than just to virtue signal.

Other than that, you didn’t miss much. Apparently, Zoe Lister Jones came out, she now likes women (“I’m here and I’m queer”). Nick Offerman condemned the “homophobic” reaction to “The Last of Us.” Host Aidy Bryant (who?) warned the audience about AI. Oh, and the ceremony was momentarily disrupted by pro-Palestine protestors.

Oh, boy, that’s entertainment!

And because of this stupid “gender neutral” movement, instead of four, only two actors took home an award.

And this is why I’m about to spend a few hundred dollars during Criterion’s 50 percent off sale — Lone Star, Blast of Silence, The Last Temptation of Christ, Bringing Up Baby, Mishima…All the great movies have already been made.

You see, unlike the people making movies today, I love movies.

So.

Instead of wasting $20 to sit through garbage like Madame Web and Drive-Away Dolls, Argylle, and whatever shit the Disney Grooming Syndicate is shoveling these days, I’m filling my Movie Ark with hard copies the fascists can’t disappear, rewrite, or thought-police…At least not until the left’s “firemen” start coming around.