Kumail Nanjiani and Kate McKinnon Parody 'Room' at 2016 Spirit Awards

James Tisch February 27th, 2016 - 10:40 PM

The 31st Film Independent Spirit Awards offered plenty of prizes for Academy favorite Spotlight and slap in the face for the Oscar’s all-white Oscar acting line-up thanks to three performers of colors picking up trophies. There was also plenty of chuckles courtesy of hosts Kumail Nanjani (Hello, My Name is Doris) and Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters). One such delight came with the opener for the show with a parody of the indie Room.

The send-up had McKinnon channeling Brie Larson‘s Indie Spirit Award winning (and likely soon-to-be Oscar winning) role as Ma, a young woman imprisoned in a tiny shack with her young son, played by Jacob Tremblay in the film (and riffed on by Nanjani). The cheeky opening routine played it silly but mostly respectful for the grim but hopeful drama it was was sending up.

Room ended up winning two Indie Spirits (along with Larson’s victory was writer Emma Donaghue‘s win for Best First Screenplay) and is up for four Academy Award tomorrow evening including Best Picture. The film- directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Frank)- sharply turned into the little-indie-that-could this past year after premiering to great acclaim (but little advanced fanfare) at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival. Shortly thereafter, Room took home the coveted People’s Choice Award at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival before cementing itself as an Oscar player. The film marks the first Best Picture nominee for distributor A24 Films.

Check out the Indie Spirits parody below:

Kumail Nanjiani and Kate McKinnon Parody ‘Room’ at 2016 Spirit Awards