The Film Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards) are awards presented annually to independent filmmakers. Founded in 1984, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit Awards in 1986. The ceremony is produced by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization that used to produce the LA Film Festival. Film Independent members vote to determine the winners of the Spirit Awards.The awards show is held inside a tent at a parking lot of the beach in Santa Monica, California, usually on the day before the Academy Awards (since 1999; originally the Saturday before). The show was previously broadcast live on the IFC network in the US from 1997 until 2023, when it was moved to YouTube, as well as Hollywood Suite in Canada and A&E Latin America. Winners were previously presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the bare budgets of independent films. Since 2006, winners receive a metal trophy depicting a bird with its wings spread sitting atop of a pole with the shoestrings from the previous design wrapped around the pole. In 2020, new categories were announced for the 36th Independent Spirit Awards, which would honor the best in television productions and performances. These categories included Best New Scripted Series, Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series, Best Male Performance, Best Female Performance, and Best Ensemble Cast. In 2022, it was announced that gender neutral acting categories would be implemented and that the previous gendered film categories — Male Lead, Female Lead, Male Supporting and Female Supporting — would be retired in favor of a Best Lead Performance and a Best Supporting Performance categories, which would feature 10 nominees each. Other new categories added included Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Lead and Supporting Performance in the TV section. Source: Wikipedia (en)