| Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead | |
| Presenter: | Independent Spirit Awards |
| Year: | M. Emmet Walsh Blood Simple (1986) |
| Year2: | Simon Rex Red Rocket (2021) |
The Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead was an award presented annually at the Independent Spirit Awards to honor an actor who has delivered an outstanding lead performance in an independent film. It was first presented in 1985, with M. Emmet Walsh being the first recipient of the award for his role as Investigator Loren Visser in Blood Simple. It was last presented in 2022 with Simon Rex being the final recipient of the award for his role in Red Rocket.
Jeff Bridges and Philip Seymour Hoffman are the only actors who have received this award more than once, with two wins each.
In 2022, it was announced that the four acting categories would be retired and replaced with two gender neutral categories, with both Best Male Lead and Best Female Lead merging into the Best Lead Performance category.[1]
| Year | Winner and nominees | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| M. Emmet Walsh | Blood Simple[2] | Investigator Loren Visser | |
| Crossover Dreams | Rudy Veloz | ||
| Wildrose | Rick Ogaard | ||
| Smooth Talk | Arnold Friend | ||
| James Woods | Salvador | Richard Boyle | |
| Down by Law | Roberto | ||
| Platoon | Sgt. Elias | ||
| Blue Velvet | Frank Booth | ||
| Native Son | Bigger Thomas | ||
| Dennis Quaid | The Big Easy | Det. Remy McSwain | |
| Swimming to Cambodia | Himself | ||
| The Stepfather | Jerry Blake | ||
| Barfly | Henry Chinaski | ||
| Best Seller | Cleve | ||
| Edward James Olmos | Stand and Deliver | Jaime Escalante | |
| Talk Radio | Barry Champlain | ||
| Torch Song Trilogy | Arnold Beckoff | ||
| Patti Rocks | Billy Regis | ||
| The Boost | Lenny Brown | ||
| Matt Dillon | Drugstore Cowboy | Bob Hughes | |
| Vampire's Kiss | Peter Loew | ||
| Sidewalk Stories | Artist | ||
| Parents | Nick Laemle | ||
| Sex, Lies, and Videotape | Graham Dalton |
| Year | Winner and nominees | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danny Glover | To Sleep with Anger | Harry | |
| Martin Priest | The Plot Against Harry | Harry Plotnick | |
| House Party | Kid | ||
| Henry | |||
| Pump Up the Volume | Mark Hunter | ||
| River Phoenix | My Own Private Idaho | Mike "Mikey" Waters | |
| Hangin' with the Homeboys | Willie | ||
| Rambling Rose | Daddy Hillyer | ||
| Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | Rosencrantz | ||
| Pastime | Roy Dean Bream | ||
| Harvey Keitel | Bad Lieutenant | The Lieutenant | |
| Swoon | Nathan Leopold, Jr. | ||
| Deep Cover | Russell Stevens / John Hull | ||
| Laws of Gravity | Jimmy | ||
| Zebrahead | Zack | ||
| Jeff Bridges | American Heart | Jack Kelson | |
| Household Saints | Joseph Santangelo | ||
| The Wedding Banquet | Simon | ||
| Equinox | Henry Petosa / Freddy Ace | ||
| Menace II Society | Caine | ||
| Samuel L. Jackson | Pulp Fiction | Jules Winnfield | |
| Eat Drink Man Woman | Chu | ||
| Oleanna | John | ||
| Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle | Robert Benchley | ||
| I Like It Like That | Chino Linares | ||
| Sean Penn | Dead Man Walking | Matthew Poncelet | |
| Leaving Las Vegas | Ben Sanderson | ||
| Little Odessa | Joshua Shapira | ||
| My Family | Jimmy Sánchez | ||
| Swimming with Sharks | Buddy Ackerman | ||
| William H. Macy | Fargo | Jerry Lundegaard | |
| Lone Star | Sheriff Sam Deeds | ||
| The Funeral | Chez | ||
| Big Night | Primo | ||
| Secondo | |||
| Robert Duvall | The Apostle | Euliss "Sonny" Dewey / The Apostle E.F. | |
| Ulee's Gold | Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson | ||
| Waiting for Guffman | Corky St. Clair | ||
| Hard Eight | Sydney Brown | ||
| Box of Moon Light | Al Fountain | ||
| Ian McKellen | Gods and Monsters | James Whale | |
| Happiness | Bill Maplewood | ||
| Affliction | Wade Whitehouse | ||
| Hurlyburly | Eddie | ||
| Blind Faith | John Williams | ||
| Richard Farnsworth | The Straight Story | Alvin Straight | |
| Being John Malkovich | Craig Schwartz | ||
| The Limey | Wilson | ||
| Limbo | Joe "Jumpin" Gastineau | ||
| The Corndog Man | Ace Barker |
| Year | Winner and nominees | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 [23] [24] | Riz Ahmed | Sound of Metal | Ruben Stone |
| Chadwick Boseman (posthumous) | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom | Levee Green | |
| The White Tiger | Balram Halwai | ||
| Bull | Abe | ||
| Minari | Jacob Yi | ||
| 2021 [25] | Simon Rex | Red Rocket | Mikey Saber |
| Jackson Silva | |||
| Frankie Faison | The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain | Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. | |
| Michael Greyeyes | Wild Indian | Makwa ("Michael Peterson") | |
| Udo Kier | Swan Song | Pat Pitsenbarger |