As has become traditional, the Film Independent Spirit Awards were handed out on Saturday night, one day before the Academy Awards. While the ceremony – which honours movies made for much lower budgets than many of the Oscar contenders – usually offers up a few surprises, the fact that The Artist was A) made for a fairly thrifty sum and B) was financed outside the US even though it was shot in LA meant that it picked up a healthy crop of gongs including Best Feature and Best Director.
Other Oscar favourites to take home prizes included Christopher Plummer for **Beginners **and A Separation for Best Foreign Film. Michelle Williams was acknowledged for her turn in My Week With Marilyn - a pretty decent consolation prize since she's expected to lose out on the Oscar to Viola Davis.
But there was still room for a few surprises, including a delighted Shailene Woodley scoring Best Supporting Female for The Descendants, and admitting to surprise that Octavia Spencer hadn’t continued her clean sweep. Fortunately for Woodley, The Help wasn’t indie enough to be counted. But it was still nice to see her get some well-deserved recognition for her work.
Other winners included Pariah and** 50/50**’s Will Reiser, who scooped Best First Screenplay.
The complete list of winners is below.
BEST FEATURE
50/50
Beginners
Drive
Take Shelter
**The Artist **
The Descendants
BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Mike Mills - Beginners
Jeff Nichols - Take Shelter
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive
**BEST SCREENPLAY
**Joseph Cedar - Footnote
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Tom McCarthy - Win Win
Mike Mills - Beginners
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash - The Descendants
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Another Earth
In The Family
**Margin Call **
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Natural Selection
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Mike Cahill, Brit Marling - Another Earth
J.C. Chandor - Margin Call
Patrick Dewitt - Terri
Phil Johnston - Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser - 50/50
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Bellflower
Circumstance
Hello Lonesome
Pariah
The Dynamiter
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Lauren Ambrose - Think Of Me
Rachael Harris - Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye - Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn
BEST MALE LEAD
Demián Bichir - A Better Life
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Ryan Gosling - Drive
Woody Harrelson - Rampart
Michael Shannon - Take Shelter
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jessica Chastain - Take Shelter
Anjelica Huston - 50/50
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana - Gun Hill Road
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Albert Brooks - Drive
John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
John C. Reilly - Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll - Midnight In Paris
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Joel Hodge - Bellflower
Benjamin Kasulke - The Off Hours
Darius Khondji - Midnight In Paris
Guillaume Schiffman - The Artist
Jeffrey Waldron - The Dynamiter
**BEST DOCUMENTARY **
An African Election
Bill Cunningham New York
The Interrupters
The Redemption Of General Butt Naked
We were here
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
**A Separation (Iran) **
Melancholia (Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany)
Shame (UK)
The Kid With A Bike (Belgium, France, Italy)
Tyrannosaur (UK)
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
**Margin Call **