Entertainment
Spirit Awards ceremony disrupted by protesters as 'Past Lives' takes top prize
In what could be a sign for awards shows to come, the Spirit Awards were severely disrupted on Sunday afternoon by pro-Palestinian protesters.
About 40 minutes into the daytime ceremony, which was held in a tent near the beach in Santa Monica, loud sounds could be heard by attending guests. A small group of protesters had assembled on a public sidewalk across from the tent, holding up a loudspeaker that played a pre-recorded looped chant of “Free, free Palestine,” “Long live Palestine” and “Cease-fire now” that could be heard throughout the rest of the show.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, left, and Anne Hathaway at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Nevertheless, the ceremony continued and awards were handed out, with writer-director Celine Song’s “Past Lives” winning for feature and director.
“Past Lives” is also nominated for best picture and screenplay at the Academy Awards. In an interview with The Times before the Spirit Awards ceremony got underway, Song said, “At the heart of it, ‘Past Lives’ is an independent film. It was made independently, and then we also premiered at Sundance, which is really the heart of independent cinema. So to me, this is like being home. Walking in here, I already felt like this is where the movie belongs.”
As often happens, Spirit Awards voters went for films also nominated for Academy Awards; Along with “Past Lives,” Oscar-nominated films such as “American Fiction,” “The Holdovers,” “May December,” “Four Daughters” and “Anatomy of a Fall” all took home Spirit Awards.
Benny Safdie, left, and “American Fiction” screenwriter-director Cord Jefferson at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“American Fiction” won for screenplay for Cord Jefferson, who also directed the film, as well as lead performance for Jeffrey Wright. This was the second year the Spirit Awards gave out non-gendered acting awards with 10 nominees, including men and women, for each prize in lead and supporting categories.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, of Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” won for supporting performance, as did her co-star, Dominic Sessa, for breakthrough performance. Eigil Bryld’s cinematography won as well.
But as the awards show continued, the protesters’ chanting could be heard through acceptance speeches. The protesters were outside on a sidewalk adjoining the beach, on the far side of the tent from where the stage was set up. Event organizers moved a shuttle bus backward and forward in front of the protesters to attempt to block the sound of their loudspeaker. Depending on where one was located inside the tent, they were either loud or unclear. The ceremony was being livestreamed on YouTube, where it was reported that muffled, indistinct noise could be heard on the broadcast.
The protest was noted a few times from the stage, often with a note of confusion as to what was going on. Host Aidy Bryant was beginning a comedy segment not long after the protest erupted and noted, “We are at the beach and people are practicing their freedom of speech.”
Lily Gladstone, center, at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Comedian Jimmy O. Yang, while presenting another award, referred to the “heckler” outside and joked that people in the independent film community are “used to getting yelled at.”
Winning the John Cassavetes award for a film made for under $1 million, “Fremont” filmmaker Babak Jalali said, “There are people speaking outside and whatever they’re saying, I think it’s far more important than what I’m about to say.” His words were met with applause.
Prior to the ceremony, Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, which puts on the Spirit Awards, said that the switch last year from a broadcast partner to livestreaming on YouTube had actually doubled the audience for the show and made it available internationally.
“This is where the community comes together,” Welsh said. “And people I think need that now and really value it.”
Will Ferrell at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Accepting the Robert Altman Award for the ensemble of “Showing Up,” filmmaker Kelly Reichardt summed up the afternoon by recalling seeing filmmaker Robert Altman receive a lifetime achievement award in 2003 as war was erupting in Iraq. “And he was pissed.” Reichardt added, gesturing to the disruption outside. “I think he’d have a lot to say, just this weirdness of us being here and celebrating each other and our work, and also, you know: Life goes on outside the tent. Peace.”
Here is a complete list of today’s Spirit Award winners.
FILM CATEGORIES
Best feature
“Past Lives”
Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon
Director
Celine Song, “Past Lives”
Screenplay
Cord Jefferson, “American Fiction”
First feature
“A Thousand and One”
Director: A.V. Rockwell
Producers: Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, Brad Weston
From left, Greta Lee, Emma Corrin, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright and Elijah Wright at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
First screenplay
Samy Burch, “May December”
John Cassavetes Award
(for a feature made under $1,000,000)
“Fremont”
Writer-director: Babak Jalal
Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, Laura Wagner
Breakthrough performance
Dominic Sessa, “The Holdovers”
Supporting performance
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
Jeffrey Wright, left, and Colman Domingo at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Lead performance
Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction
Robert Altman Award
(for an ensemble cast, director and casting director)
“Showing Up”
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Casting Director: Gayle Keller
Ensemble Cast: André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez, Michelle Williams
Cinematography
Eigil Bryld, “The Holdovers”
Editing
Daniel Garber, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”
International film
“Anatomy of a Fall” (NEON)
Director: Justine Triet
Documentary
“Four Daughters”
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha
Someone to Watch
Monica Sorelle, “Mountains”
Truer Than Fiction
Set Hernandez, “unseen”
Producers Award
Monique Walton
Andrew Scott and Anne Hathaway at the Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
TELEVISION CATEGORIES
New scripted series
“Beef”
Creator/Executive Producer: Lee Sung Jin
Executive Producers: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, Alli Reich
Co-Executive Producers: Alice Ju, Carrie Kemper
New non-scripted or documentary series
“Dear Mama”
Executive Producers: Lasse Järvi, Quincy “QD3” Jones III, Staci Robinson, Nelson George, Charles D. King, Peter Nelson, Adel “Future” Nur, Jamal Joseph, Ted Skillman, Allen Hughes, Steve Berman, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, John Janick, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair
Supporting performance in a new scripted series
Nick Offerman, “The Last of Us”
Lead performance in a new scripted series
Ali Wong, “Beef”
Breakthrough performance in a new scripted series
Keivonn Montreal Woodard, “The Last of Us”
Ensemble cast in a new scripted series
“Jury Duty”
Ensemble Cast: Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, James Marsden, Edy Modica, Kerry O’Neill, Rashida Olayiwola, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, Evan Williams
Entertainment
Todd Meadows, ‘Deadliest Catch’ deckhand, dies at 25
Todd Meadows, a crewmember on one of the fishing vessels featured on the long-running reality series “Deadliest Catch,” has died. He was 25.
Rick Shelford, the captain of the Aleutian Lady, announced in a Monday post on Facebook and Instagram that Meadows died Feb. 25. He called it “the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea.”
“We lost our brother,” Shelford wrote in his lengthy tribute. “Todd was the newest member of our crew, he quickly became family. His love for fishing and his strong work ethic earned everyone’s respect right away. His smile was contagious, and the sound of his laughter coming up the wheelhouse stairs or over the deck hailer is something we will carry with us always.
“He worked hard, loved deeply, and brought joy to those around him,” he added. “Todd will forever be part of this boat, this crew, and this brotherhood. Though we lost him far too soon, his legacy will live on through his children and in every memory we carry of him.”
A fundraiser set up in Meadows’ name described the deckhand from Montesano, Wash., as a father to “three amazing little boys” who died “while doing what he loved — crabbing out on Alaskan waters.”
According to the Associated Press, Meadows died after he was reported to have fallen overboard around 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
“He was recovered unresponsive by the crew approximately ten minutes later,” Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, a spokesperson with the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, told the AP. The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.
Meadows was a first-year cast member of “Deadliest Catch,” the Discovery Channel reality series that follows crab fishermen navigating the perilous winds and waves of the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The show debuted in 2005. No episodes from Meadows’ season has aired.
Deadline reported that the show was in production on its 22nd season when the incident occurred, with the Shelford-led Aleutian Lady being the last of the vessels still out at sea at the time. Production has subsequently concluded, per the outlet.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Todd Meadows,” a Discovery Channel spokesperson said in a statement that has been widely circulated. “This is a devastating loss, and our hearts are with his loved ones, his crewmates, and the entire fishing community during this incredibly difficult time.”
Meadows is the latest among “Deadliest Catch” cast members who have died. Previous deaths include Phil Harris, a captain of one of the ships featured on the show, who died after suffering a stroke while filming the show’s sixth season in 2010. Todd Kochutin, a crew member of the Patricia Lee, died in 2021 from injuries he sustained while aboard the fishing vessel, according to an obituary. Other cast members have died from substance abuse or natural causes.
Movie Reviews
‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years
“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway.
It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.
Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.
We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.
Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.
That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.
Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.
The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.
And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged.
“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.
HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.
Entertainment
How a mural of Altadena became a symbol of resilience for one small store, through fire and flood
Every time Adriana Molina drives up Lake Avenue to her retro-style women’s clothing shop Sidecca in Altadena, she sees the new outdoor mural she commissioned for the store by muralist and illustrator Annie Bolding. It gives her hope.
“I’m here to stay, and this mural solidified my decision to reopen my business,” said Molina on a recent winter day, sitting next to Bolding inside the boutique. “I grew up in Altadena. The community has motivated me this whole time, and I want them to drive by this mural and smile.”
“ALTADENA.” The word — in big white letters, set against layers of blue — appears toward the top of the mural, on the store’s brick wall facing Lake. Above are the San Gabriel Mountains, painted a deep brown, California poppies and Mariposa Street and Lake Avenue street signs. Below are green grass, a monarch butterfly and Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane. A bright blue house is on a multicolored striped path in the middle of the mural. Next to it, on a hiking trail, a sign says, “Welcome Home Altadena… With Love, Sidecca.”
For Molina and Bolding, the mural is a personal ode to the Eaton fire-ravaged community — art as a message of optimism and healing.
A car passes by the new Altadena mural on the side of Sidecca apparel shop, which commissioned the piece after fire and floods devastated the community.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
When the fire tore through Altadena in January 2025, Sidecca and a few other stores on the north side of Mariposa Street’s bustling Mariposa Junction survived, while the other half-block of businesses burned to the ground. The fire leveled Bolding’s parents’ house off Lake and the home of one of Molina’s close relatives.
Molina staged pop-ups and sold merchandise online during months of remediation, and officially reopened Sidecca’s doors in November as part of Mariposa Junction’s larger comeback. Then the store suffered another blow: flooding and damage during rainstorms in late December. While Molina prepped to temporarily close her store yet again for renovations, Bolding began work on the mural. She started painting on the one-year anniversary of the fire and finished eight days later.
“On the day I started it, it was so cold and windy, and I was scared being up on the ladder,” said Bolding. “But getting to talk to community members while I was painting was very special. People were excited and honking as they drove by. That night, I drove up to the lot where my parents’ place was, and I stood there and all the feelings flooded back.”
The mural’s origin story is that of two creative women bound by strength and a desire to give back.
Molina, who has worked in the fashion industry for more than 30 years, opened Sidecca’s Altadena spot in 2023, after closing its longtime Pasadena location. Voted Pasadena’s best women’s clothing store five times by Pasadena Weekly, Sidecca sells fun vintage-inspired merchandise and clothes, from ‘50s style dresses to snazzy magnets, tote bags and sunglasses. A big rainbow zips across the top of one of the store’s walls.
A display in Sidecca in 2023, two years before the Eaton fire devastated Altadena.
(Alejandro R. Jimenez)
“A few months after Sidecca opened in Altadena, my mom walked in and saw how colorful it was, and said, ‘This reminds me of my daughter,’ ” Bolding said. “With zero hesitation, my mom said to Adriana, ‘Here’s her Instagram. This is my daughter’s stuff.’ ”
Bolding, who goes by Disco Day Designs, calls herself “a joyful creator who loves to intentionally transform spaces.” Known for the bright murals she creates for brands and shops, Bolding gained attention on social media for a trash bin she painted with palm trees and stripes. She brought it to the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as part of a contest organized by the festival’s sustainability partner, Global Inheritance.
“I fixated on the trash can,” said Molina. “I looked at Annie’s murals and was like, ‘Oh, she has to do something in here for us.’ ”
“Game recognizes game,” added Bolding, smiling.
Molina wanted to rebrand Sidecca with a new logo, bags and art, and connected with Bolding about that and a possible mural inside the store. “I wanted ‘Sidecca’ painted across a wall as an acronym that stands for style, individuality, diversity, expression, community, culture and art,” she said. “That’s who we are.”
Then came Jan. 7, 2025.
The store was closed all day for a holiday lunch. Then the winds picked up and the flames roared. Molina, who lives with her husband and two children on the Altadena-Pasadena, evacuated with her family to Long Beach and came back days later. She knew the store was OK because she’d seen it — intact — on the news.
“As soon as we could come up to the shop, we went,” Molina said. “There were ashes all over.”
Bolding and her husband were in Palm Springs fixing up an AirBnb they cohost when Bolding got a call from her mom about the fire in Altadena. She urged her mom, dad and younger brother to evacuate. After they did, their home burned down. Her parents now live in a Pasadena apartment.
When Molina started selling Altadena-themed merch on Sidecca’s website, Bolding donated three designs, including one with lively retro daisies. In July, she wrote an email to Molina reviving the idea of a mural, but outside versus inside, as an ode to Altadena.
“It felt like anything I could do to bring joy, let’s go,” said Molina. “And I really wanted a little house in there, and for it to say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”
The mural would be Bolding’s first public piece of art on a main street.
“Lake always felt like the road going home,” she said. “That rainbow road in the mural, leading to the mountains, is so symbolic. Very ‘Wizard of Oz.’ The mountains, their silhouette, have always felt majestic, safe, and why it was so heartbreaking anytime to see them burn. To me, they feel like mother.”
Muralist Annie Bolding stands in front of her new Altadena mural on the side of the Sidecca apparel shop. The work is Bolding’s first piece of public art on a main street.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Bolding’s joyful daisies decorated the Sidecca tote bag given to customers at November’s reopening, just before December’s intense rainstorms. Water gushed through Sidecca’s ceiling. Molina and her employee Manisa Ianakiev were overwhelmed.
“We were like, ‘Is this really happening?’ ” said Molina. “Then people started bringing tools and towels. It was an example of community.”
Bolding planned to start painting the mural Jan. 4, during the Altadena Forever Run, but rain swept through. After Molina’s landlord installed a plywood base, Bolding started on the mural several days later.
Since then, the shop’s ceiling has been replaced, and Molina is working on trying to replace the floor — while continuing to stage pop-ups and sell merchandise online — before fully reopening the bricks-and-mortar boutique this spring.
“People say, ‘Every time I go into your store, I just get happy. I’m in a better mood,’ ” said Molina. “I get that all the time. And what Annie has done, this mural, is beautiful. It makes me happy.”
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