Reminder: The Independent Spirit Awards Are Also this Weekend

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The Independent Spirit Awards will take place a day before the Academy Awards.

The Academy Awards are this Sunday, and Rachel McAdams is up for an award as well as Spotlight for Best Picture. One day before, however, on Saturday night, the Independent Spirit Awards will be broadcast on IFC. The Spirit Awards tend to be a bit edgier than the Oscars for several reasons, but they also tend to nominate a wider ranger of films and actors.

The Oscars have decided to pull a hardcore snub on Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of no Nation. While it can’t be definitively stated why they did went that route, we’ve come up with some of our own opinions on the matter.

SANTA MONICA, CA – FEBRUARY 21: Best Feature winners for ‘Birdman’ winners Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole and Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Zach Galifianakis poses for a portrait at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 21, 2015 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Smallz

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The Spirit Awards, however, have rectified that wrong by nominating Beasts of no Nation several times over. If Cary Fukunaga is going to win big this award season, this is his last shot. Beasts of no Nation has also been snubbed by the Saturn Awards, but they tend to gravitate toward “nerdier,” for lack of a better word, shows and films.

While season two of True Detective wasn’t nominated at the Spirit Awards it will still be worth watching to see how it all turns out for Cary Fukunaga. Beasts of no Nation has not been the awards-eating machine it was originally thought to be, but it deserves far more than it has gotten.

Next: The Saturn Award nominations are unique.

Watching the Spirit Awards and Oscars this weekend will offer two very different looks at how the award system is run. We’ll be watching both, of course.