IndieWire Honors: Watch Natalie Portman, Alfonso Cuarón, Amandla Stenberg, and More Accept Their Awards

IndieWire Honors was a night of speeches — some serious, some lighthearted, all worth a listen. Take Cary Joji Fukunaga, for instance, who closed with a “Boogie Nights” reference: “I want to quote the great independent-film philosopher Dirk Diggler: ‘I’m gonna keep trying if you guys keep trying.’”

Bill Hader also kept things light, joking that he had “just had his first beer in 10 years; I fell off the wagon. Thank you, IndieWire. It’s a long, dark journey for me now.” (On a more serious note, he also called on everyone present to help save FilmStruck.)

Amandla Stenberg, meanwhile, was just grateful to be discussing something serious. “It’s so refreshing to be able to talk to a group of people who are interested in having a really in-depth, enriching conversation about film and don’t want to ask me about who my celebrity crush is,” she said.

Charlize Theron was similarly grateful, especially for the chance to work with Diablo Cody again: “She writes women who are so complex and fucked up and beautiful,” the “Tully” star said. “I tend to read them and just know them so well; I don’t know what that says about me, but I’m just grateful that she hands me the scripts and for Jason [Reitman] to direct me.”

Constance Wu was feted for her work in the studio-backed “Crazy Rich Asians,” but still found time to praise independent film as “the place where you find the best stories. They’re the most real and the most true, and that’s why it’s just so cool to be here with the people who really support independent film.”

Watch all of their speeches, as well as those of Natalie Portman, Ryan Coogler, and Alfonso Cuarón, below: