Pemeran Utama Laki-laki Terbaik (Independent Spirit Award)

1980an

Tahun	Pemenang dan nominee	Film	Peran
1985	M. Emmet Walsh	Blood Simple	Investigator Loren Visser
	Rubén Blades	Crossover Dreams	Rudy Veloz
	Tom Bower	Wildrose	Rick Ogaard
	Treat Williams	Smooth Talk	Arnold Friend
1986	James Woods	Salvador	Richard Boyle ‡
	Roberto Benigni	Down by Law	Roberto
	Willem Dafoe	Platoon	Sgt. Elias ‡
	Dennis Hopper	Blue Velvet	Frank Booth
	Victor Love	Native Son	Bigger Thomas
1987	Dennis Quaid	The Big Easy	Det. Remy McSwain
	Spalding Gray	Swimming to Cambodia	Diri sendiri
	Terry O'Quinn	The Stepfather	Jerry Blake
	Mickey Rourke	Barfly	Henry Chinaski
	James Woods	Best Seller	Cleve
1988	Edward James Olmos	Stand and Deliver	Jaime Escalante ‡
	Eric Bogosian	Talk Radio	Barry Champlain
	Harvey Fierstein	Torch Song Trilogy	Arnold Beckoff
	Chris Mulkey	Patti Rocks	Billy Regis
	James Woods	The Boost	Lenny Brown
1989	Matt Dillon	Drugstore Cowboy	Bob Hughes
	Nicolas Cage	Vampire's Kiss	Peter Loew
	Charles Lane	Sidewalk Stories	Artist
	Randy Quaid	Parents	Nick Laemle
	James Spader	Sex, Lies, and Videotape	Graham Dalton