<\/p>\n
\n\tThe stars at the 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards<\/a>, including Natasha Rothwell, Tessa Thompson and Kumail Nanjiani, were not afraid to make their anti-ICE<\/a> stance known.<\/p>\n \n\tAmid a tense political era in the United States under President Donald Trump, several celebrities have been speaking out <\/a>against his administration and his aggressive immigration policies, in particular, during the 2026 awards<\/a> season, and it was no different on Sunday.<\/p>\n \n\tBefore presenting the award for best ensemble cast in a new scripted series to the Jason Momoa-led Chief of War, White Lotus alum Natasha Rothwell went off script for a moment, saying, \u201cI\u2019m gonna go to the prompter, but I just want to say, \u2018Fuck ICE.’\u201d She was also wearing an \u201cICE Out\u201d pin.<\/p>\n \n\tOther celebs wearing the same pins included Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, Hedda actress Tessa Thompson and Lake Bell. The message stands in resistance to federal immigration agents following the high-profile killings of Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE agents last month, which sparked national outrage about the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter Esta Isla (This Island) won the John Cassavetes Award, which is given to a film made for less than $1,000,000, the movie\u2019s directors, Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero, stressed the importance of \u201ceverybody\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIn this time of such inequality and just so many people being silenced and dehumanized, it\u2019s so important for us to raise our voices, and that\u2019s the power of independent cinema and filmmaking, and to change the narrative,\u201d Molina said on stage. \u201cSo thank you independent cinema, thank you to the committee and thank you to all of us for continuing to tell our stories.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe added, \u201cWe\u2019re from Puerto Rico and we love our home and we\u2019re inspired by it. And we really wanted to tell our story because everybody\u2019s voice is important, not just a few.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEsta Isla centers on young lovers Bebo and Lola, who are from different social worlds in Puerto Rico, and escape to a remote area of the island after a murder occurs.<\/p>\n \n\tEarlier during the ceremony, The Perfect Neighbor also won the award for best documentary, and filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir used her time on stage to raise awareness surrounding \u201cmanufactured fear and weaponized racism.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Netflix true-crime documentary explores how Florida\u2019s controversial \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d laws are applied in cases of systemic racism and violence, specifically focusing on the fatal shooting of Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four who was killed by her white neighbor, Susan Lorincz.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis film is her [Owens\u2019] legacy, and we are so grateful to her family for trusting us with this story,\u201d Gandbhir said in her acceptance speech. \u201cAnd our film is made predominantly from police body camera footage. It\u2019s about the intersection of manufactured fear, weaponized racism and dangerous laws like Stand Your Ground that polarize neighbors and embolden hatred and criminal behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe continued, \u201cIt\u2019s a reflection of this moment in time in our country where truth is contested, empathy is overshadowed by fear and where systems meant to protect people are turning against them. So it asks us to look closely and to listen and to reckon with the realities we might otherwise turn away from.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI want to honor my fellow filmmakers who are of color, who are immigrants, who are LGBTQ, and everyone who comes from the most marginalized communities who continue to make work against all odds,\u201d Gandbhir concluded. \u201cThis award is also in your honor.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGandbhir, along with the film\u2019s producers Nikon Kwantu and Alisa Payne, also wore \u201cICE Out\u201d pins at the Spirit Awards.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 41st annual Film Independent Spirit Awards<\/a>, hosted by Ego Nwodim, were held Sunday afternoon at the Hollywood Palladium. Find all the winners here<\/a>, and check out the star-studded arrivals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hollywoodreporter.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The stars at the 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Natasha Rothwell, Tessa Thompson and Kumail Nanjiani, were not afraid to make their anti-ICE stance known. Amid a tense political era in the United States under President Donald Trump, several celebrities have been speaking out against his administration and his aggressive immigration policies, in particular, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2283460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[25060,442339,412541,306380,442340,22048,442341],"class_list":["post-2283459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-awards","tag-awards-2026","tag-film-independent-spirit-awards","tag-ice","tag-independent-spirit-awards","tag-politics","tag-spirit-awards-2026"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Celebs-Slam-ICE-at-Independent-Spirit-Awards-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283461,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283459\/revisions\/2283461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}