Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male

Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
Presented by	Film Independent
First awarded	Morgan Freeman – Street Smart (1988)
Last awarded	Troy Kotsur – CODA (2021)
Website	filmindependent.org

The Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male was one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It was first presented in 1987, with Morgan Freeman being the first recipient, for his role as Fast Black in Street Smart. It was last presented in 2022 with Troy Kotsur being the final recipient of the award for his role in CODA.

In 2022, it was announced that the four acting categories would be retired and replaced with two gender neutral categories, with both Best Supporting Male and Best Supporting Female merging into the Best Supporting Performance category.^[1]

Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe and Benicio del Toro are the only actors who have received this award more than once, with two wins each.

Winners and nominees

Morgan Freeman was the first recipient of the award in 1987 for Street Smart.

Lou Diamond Phillips won for Stand and Deliver.

Bruce Davison won for Longtime Companion.

Steve Buscemi has won twice, for Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Ghost World in 2001.

Benicio del Toro has won twice, for The Usual Suspects (1995) and Basquiat (1996).

Jason Lee won for Chasing Amy.

Steve Zahn won for Happy, Texas.

Willem Dafoe has won twice, for Shadow of the Vampire (2000) and The Lighthouse (2019).

Dennis Quaid won for Far from Heaven.

Djimon Hounsou won for In America.

Chiwetel Ejiofor won for Talk to Me.

Woody Harrelson won for The Messenger.

Christopher Plummer won for Beginners.

Matthew McConaughey won for Magic Mike.

J. K. Simmons won for Whiplash.

Idris Elba won for Beasts of No Nation.

Ben Foster won for Hell or High Water.

Sam Rockwell won for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Troy Kotsur was the final recipient for CODA.

1980s

Year	Actor	Film	Role
1987 [2]	Morgan Freeman	Street Smart	Fast Black
	Wings Hauser	Tough Guys Don't Dance	Capt. Alvin Luther Regency
	James Earl Jones	Matewan	'Few Clothes' Johnson
	Vincent Price	The Whales of August	Mr. Maranov
	David Strathairn	Matewan	Sid Hatfield
1988	Lou Diamond Phillips	Stand and Deliver	Angel Guzman
	Ernest Borgnine	Spike of Bensonhurst	Baldo Cacetti
	Divine	Hairspray	Edna Turnblad / Arvin Hodgepile
	John Lone	The Moderns	Bertram Stone
	John Turturro	Five Corners	Heinz
1989	Max Perlich	Drugstore Cowboy	David
	Steve Buscemi	Mystery Train	Charlie the Barber
	Scott Coffey	Shag	Chip Gaillard
	Gary Farmer	Powwow Highway	Philbert Bono
	Screamin' Jay Hawkins	Mystery Train	Night Clerk

1990s

Year	Actor	Film	Role
1990	Bruce Davison	Longtime Companion	David
	Willem Dafoe	Wild at Heart	Bobby Peru
	Robin Harris	House Party	Pop
	Ben Lang	The Plot Against Harry	Leo
	Tom Towles	Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer	Otis
1991	David Strathairn	City of Hope	Asteroid
	William H. Macy	Homicide	Tim Sullivan
	John Malkovich	Queens Logic	Eliot
	George T. Odom	Straight Out of Brooklyn	Ray Brown
	Glenn Plummer	Pastime	Tyrone Debray
1992	Steve Buscemi	Reservoir Dogs	Mr. Pink
	William Forsythe	The Waterdance	Bloss
	Jeff Goldblum	Deep Cover	David Jason
	Wesley Snipes	The Waterdance	Raymond Hill
	David Strathairn	Passion Fish	Rennie
1993	Christopher Lloyd	Twenty Bucks	Jimmy
	David Chung	The Ballad of Little Jo	Tinman Wong
	Tate Donovan	Inside Monkey Zetterland	Brent Zetterland
	Todd Field	Ruby in Paradise	Mike McCaslin
	Edward Furlong	American Heart	Nick Kelson
1994	Chazz Palminteri	Bullets Over Broadway	Cheech
	Giancarlo Esposito	Fresh	Esteban
	Larry Pine	Vanya on 42nd Street	Dr. Astrov
	Eric Stoltz	Pulp Fiction	Lance
	Nicholas Turturro	Federal Hill	Ralph
1995	Benicio del Toro	The Usual Suspects	Fred Fenster
	James LeGros	Living in Oblivion	Chad Palomino
	David Morse	The Crossing Guard	John Booth
	Max Perlich	Georgia	Axel Goldman
	Harold Perrineau	Smoke	Thomas 'Rashid' Cole
1996	Benicio del Toro	Basquiat	Benny Dalmau
	Kevin Corrigan	Walking and Talking	Bill
	Matthew Faber	Welcome to the Dollhouse	Mark Wiener
	Gary Farmer	Dead Man	Nobody
	Richard Jenkins	Flirting with Disaster	Paul Harmon
1997	Jason Lee	Chasing Amy	Banky Edwards
	Efrain Figueroa	Star Maps	Pepe Amato
	Samuel L. Jackson	Hard Eight	Jimmy
	Ajay Naidu	SubUrbia	Nazeer Choudhury
	Roy Scheider	The Myth of Fingerprints	Hal
1998	Bill Murray	Rushmore	Herman Blume
	James Coburn	Affliction	Glen Whitehouse
	Charles S. Dutton	Blind Faith	Charles Williams
	Gary Farmer	Smoke Signals	Arnold Joseph
	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Happiness	Allen
1999	Steve Zahn	Happy, Texas	Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr., aka David
	Charles S. Dutton	Cookie's Fortune	Jason Brown
	Clark Gregg	The Adventures of Sebastian Cole	Hank Rossi / Henrietta Rossi
	Luis Guzmán	The Limey	Eduardo Roel
	Terrence Howard	The Best Man	Quentin Spivey

2000s

Year	Actor	Film	Role
2000 [3]	Willem Dafoe	Shadow of the Vampire	Max Schreck
	Cole Hauser	Tigerland	Staff Sgt. Cota
	Gary Oldman	The Contender	Shelly Runyon
	Giovanni Ribisi	The Gift	Buddy Cole
	Billy Dee Williams	The Visit	Henry
2001 [4]	Steve Buscemi	Ghost World	Seymour
	Don Cheadle	Things Behind the Sun	Chuck
	Billy Kay	L.I.E.	Gary Terrio
	Garrett Morris	Jackpot	Lester Irving
	John C. Reilly	The Anniversary Party	Mac Forsyth
2002 [5]	Dennis Quaid	Far from Heaven	Frank Whitaker
	Alan Arkin	Thirteen Conversations About One Thing	Gene
	Ray Liotta	Narc	Henry Oak
	John C. Reilly	The Good Girl	Phil Last
	Peter Weller	Ivans Xtc	Don West
2003 [6]	Djimon Hounsou	In America	Mateo
	Judah Friedlander	American Splendor	Toby Radloff
	Troy Garity	Soldier's Girl	Barry Winchell
	Alessandro Nivola	Laurel Canyon	Ian McKnight
	Peter Sarsgaard	Shattered Glass	Chuck Lane
2004 [7]	Thomas Haden Church	Sideways	Jack Cole
	Jon Gries	Napoleon Dynamite	Uncle Rico
	Aidan Quinn	Cavedweller	Clint Windsor
	Roger Robinson	Brother to Brother	Bruce Nugent
	Peter Sarsgaard	Kinsey	Clyde Martin
2005 [8]	Matt Dillon	Crash	Sgt. John Ryan
	Firdous Bamji	The War Within	Sayeed
	Jesse Eisenberg	The Squid and the Whale	Walt Berkman
	Barry Pepper	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	Mike Norton
	Jeffrey Wright	Broken Flowers	Winston
2006 [9]	Alan Arkin	Little Miss Sunshine	Edwin Hoover
	Raymond J. Barry	Steel City	Vic Lee
	Daniel Craig	Infamous	Perry Smith
	Paul Dano	Little Miss Sunshine	Dwayne
	Channing Tatum	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints	Young Antonio
2007 [10]	Chiwetel Ejiofor	Talk to Me	Dewey Hughes
	Marcus Carl Franklin	I'm Not There	Woody Guthrie
	Kene Holliday	Great World of Sound	Clarence
	Irrfan Khan	The Namesake	Ashoke Ganguli
	Steve Zahn	Rescue Dawn	Duane W. Martin
2008 [11]	James Franco	Milk	Scott Smith
	Anthony Mackie	The Hurt Locker	Sergeant J. T. Sanborn
	Charlie McDermott	Frozen River	Troy "T.J." Eddy, Jr.
	Jim Myron Ross	Ballast	James
	Haaz Sleiman	The Visitor	Tarek
2009 [12]	Woody Harrelson	The Messenger	Capt. Tony Stone
	Jemaine Clement	Gentlemen Broncos	Dr. Ronald Chevalier
	Christian McKay	Me and Orson Welles	Orson Welles
	Ray McKinnon	That Evening Sun	Lonzo Choat
	Christopher Plummer	The Last Station	Leo Tolstoy

2010s

Year	Actor	Film	Role
2010 [13]	John Hawkes	Winter's Bone	Teardrop Dolly
	Samuel L. Jackson	Mother and Child	Paul
	Bill Murray	Get Low	Frank Quinn
	John Ortiz	Jack Goes Boating	Clyde
	Mark Ruffalo	The Kids Are All Right	Paul Hatfield
2011 [14]	Christopher Plummer	Beginners	Hal Fields
	Albert Brooks	Drive	Bernie Rose
	John Hawkes	Martha Marcy May Marlene	Patrick
	John C. Reilly	Cedar Rapids	Dean Ziegler
	Corey Stoll	Midnight in Paris	Ernest Hemingway
2012 [15]	Matthew McConaughey	Magic Mike	Dallas
	David Oyelowo	Middle of Nowhere	Brian
	Michael Peña	End of Watch	Miguel "Mike" Zavala
	Sam Rockwell	Seven Psychopaths	Billy Bickle
	Bruce Willis	Moonrise Kingdom	Captain Duffy Sharp
2013 [16]	Jared Leto	Dallas Buyers Club	Rayon
	Michael Fassbender	12 Years a Slave	Edwin Epps
	Will Forte	Nebraska	David Grant
	James Gandolfini	Enough Said	Albert
	Lakeith Stanfield	Short Term 12	Marcus
2014 [17]	J. K. Simmons	Whiplash	Terence Fletcher
	Riz Ahmed	Nightcrawler	Rick Blaine
	Ethan Hawke	Boyhood	Mason Evans, Sr.
	Alfred Molina	Love Is Strange	George
	Edward Norton	Birdman	Mike Shiner
2015 [18]	Idris Elba	Beasts of No Nation	The Commandant
	Kevin Corrigan	Results	Danny
	Paul Dano	Love & Mercy	Brian Wilson
	Richard Jenkins	Bone Tomahawk	Deputy Chicory
	Michael Shannon	99 Homes	Rick Carver
2016 [19]	Ben Foster	Hell or High Water	Tanner Howard
	Ralph Fiennes	A Bigger Splash	Harry Hawkes
	Lucas Hedges	Manchester by the Sea	Patrick Chandler
	Shia LaBeouf	American Honey	Jake
	Craig Robinson	Morris from America	Curtis Gentry
2017 [20]	Sam Rockwell	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	Officer Jason Dixon
	Nnamdi Asomugha	Crown Heights	Carl King
	Armie Hammer	Call Me by Your Name	Oliver
	Barry Keoghan	The Killing of a Sacred Deer	Martin
	Benny Safdie	Good Time	Nick Nikas
2018 [21]	Richard E. Grant	Can You Ever Forgive Me?	Jack Hock
	Raúl Castillo	We the Animals	Paps
	Adam Driver	BlacKkKlansman	Detective Flip Zimmerman
	Josh Hamilton	Eighth Grade	Mark Day
	John David Washington	Monsters and Men	Dennis Williams
2019 [22]	Willem Dafoe	The Lighthouse	Thomas Wake
	Noah Jupe	Honey Boy	Young Otis Lort
	Shia LaBeouf	Honey Boy	James Lort
	Jonathan Majors	The Last Black Man in San Francisco	Montgomery Allen
	Wendell Pierce	Burning Cane	Reverend Tillman

2020s

Year	Actor	Film	Role
2020 [23][24]	Paul Raci	Sound of Metal	Joe
	Colman Domingo	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Cutler
	Orion Lee	First Cow	King-Lu
	Glynn Turman	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Toledo
	Benedict Wong	Nine Days	Kyo
2021 [25]	Troy Kotsur	CODA	Frank Rossi
	Colman Domingo	Zola	Abegunde "X" Olawale
	Meeko Gattuso	Queen of Glory	Pitt
	Will Patton	Sweet Thing	Adam
	Chaske Spencer	Wild Indian	Teddo

Multiple nominees

2 nominations Alan Arkin Kevin Corrigan Paul Dano Colman Domingo Benicio del Toro Charles S. Dutton John Hawkes Samuel L. Jackson Richard Jenkins Shia LaBeouf Bill Murray Max Perlich Christopher Plummer Sam Rockwell Peter Sarsgaard Steve Zahn

3 nominations Steve Buscemi Willem Dafoe Gary Farmer John C. Reilly David Strathairn

Multiple winners

2 wins

• Steve Buscemi
• Willem Dafoe
• Benicio del Toro (consecutive)

See also

• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
• BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

References

1. Chapman, Wilson (August 23, 2022). "Spirit Awards to Implement Gender Neutral Acting Categories". Variety. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
2. Film Independent Spirit Awards - 34 Years of Nominees and Winners
3. "Tiger Takes 3 Spirit Awards". ABC News. March 24, 2001. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
4. Ryan, Joal (March 23, 2002). ""Memento" Has the Spirit". E! Online. Archived from the original on Oct 20, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
5. Hernandez, Eugene; Brooks, Brian (March 22, 2003). ""Far From Heaven" Sweeps 2003 Independent Spirit Awards". IndieWire. Archived from the original on Mar 4, 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
6. Hernandez, Eugene (February 28, 2004). ""Lost In Translation" Tops Independent Spirit Awards, "Station Agent" Another Big Winner". IndieWire. Archived from the original on Oct 13, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
7. Hernandez, Eugene (February 28, 2005). "Sideways Wins Six at Independent Spirit Awards". IndieWire. Archived from the original on Mar 3, 2016. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
8. Germain, David (March 4, 2006). "'Brokeback' named best independent film". USA Today. Archived from the original on Mar 1, 2016. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
9. McNary, Dave (February 24, 2007). "'Sunshine' brightens Spirit Awards". Variety. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
10. Siegel, Tatiana (February 23, 2008). "'Juno' tops Spirit Awards". Variety. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
11. Brooks, Brian (February 21, 2009). ""The Wrestler" Leads 2009 Spirit Award Winners". IndieWire. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
12. Breznican, Anthony (March 6, 2010). "'Precious' dominates Spirit Awards with 5 prizes". USA Today. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
13. Knegt, Peter (February 27, 2011). ""Black Swan" Lead Spirit Award Winners". IndieWire. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
14. McNary, Dave (February 25, 2012). "'The Artist' dominates Spirit Awards". Variety. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
15. "Independent Spirit Awards 2013: Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. February 23, 2013. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
16. Atkinson, Katie. "Independent Spirit Awards 2014: The winners list". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
17. "Spirit Awards 2015: The Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. February 21, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
18. "Spirit Awards 2016: Complete Winners List". Variety. February 27, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
19. Earl, William (February 26, 2017). "2017 Independent Spirit Awards: Full Winners List". IndieWire. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
20. Nyren, Erin (March 3, 2018). "2018 Independent Spirit Awards: Winners List (Updating Live)". Variety. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
21. Welk, Brian (February 24, 2019). "Independent Spirit Awards 2019: Complete Winners List". TheWrap. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
22. D'Alessandro, Anthony; Blyth, Antonia (February 8, 2020). "Independent Spirit Awards Redresses Female Balance With Wins For Lulu Wang, Olivia Wilde & Julia Reichert – Complete Winners List". Deadline. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
23. Grobar, Matt (April 22, 2021). "'Nomadland' Wins Independent Spirit Awards For Best Picture, Director, Editing & Cinematography, Further Solidifying Oscars Prospects". Deadline. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
24. Sharf, Zack (April 23, 2021). "2021 Independent Spirit Awards Winner's List". IndieWire. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
25. Long, Brent; Tangcay, Jazz (December 14, 2021). "Indie Spirit Awards 2022: Full List of Nominations". Variety. Retrieved December 14, 2021.

External links

• Every BEST SUPPORTING MALE winner ever video on the official Film Independent YouTube channel