The Safdies & Adam Sandler Deliver Epic Speeches for ‘Uncut Gems’ Spirit Awards Wins, Watch

The Safdies & Adam Sandler Deliver Epic Speeches for ‘Uncut Gems’ Spirit Awards Wins, Watch


Uncut Gems was on a roll yesterday. The film took home three Film Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Male Lead for Adam Sandler. And in typical Uncut Gems fashion, the acceptance speeches were whirlwind and highly entertaining. You can watch all three in full below.

A little less than a month ago, the Oscars completely shafted directors Josh and Benny Safdie’s 10-year labor of love about a gambling-addicted Diamond District jeweler. However, we were confident the Film Independent Spirit Awards would give Uncut Gems its due.

Uncut Gems Spirit Awards Speeches The film’s first win for Best Editing came early in the event. Benny Safdie and Ronald Bronstein accepted the award as co-editors. Benny threw a few editing jokes into his speech, while Bronstein talked about the experience of working on the film. He described it as being “anxiety all of the time.” With the editing, he explained that they start out with the goal of not wanting to bore the viewer, but then the anxiety set in. He elaborated, “At what point does someone who doesn’t want to bore you become a menace, like an aggressive, hostile force that you’re looking to get away from. And if you’ve seen the movie, then you can see the rhythms of the cuts sort of reflect that dilemma.”

As the ceremony entered its final stretch, Film Independent crowned Josh and Benny Safdie Best Director. After the announcement, Josh paused before going up on stage to give Robert Eggers, who was sitting at a table nearby, a hug. Eggers was nominated in the same category for The Lighthouse. Both films share the same distributor, A24.

Both Josh and Benny prepared acceptance speeches in the event that they won. Being mindful of time and in the spirit of Uncut Gems, the Safdies read their speeches simultaneously. The audience loved it.

The film’s final win went to Sandler for Best Male Lead. There was almost a look of relief on Sandler’s face when they announced his win. And now we know why. He had an epic hand-written acceptance speech burning a hole in his pocket. An expletive-filled work of art, the speech finds the actor cleverly dissing the Oscars. You need to watch it for Sandler’s goofy voice and cadence. We implore you to give it a view below.

The Film Independent Spirit Awards also nominated Uncut Gems for Best Feature and Best Screenplay. Those awards went to Lulu Wang’s The Farewell and Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story, respectively. You can find the complete list of winners and nominees here.

Uncut Gems: Extended Edition is now in theaters. It includes a special Safdies-directed Q&A Experience featuring Sandler and special guests. To read more about that, go here.

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