Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, handed out top honors to Black Swan, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, and The Kids Are All Right at this afternoon’s 26th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The King’s Speech, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Get Low, Tiny Furniture, and Daddy Longlegs also received awards at the ceremony, held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica.
This year’s major category winners were Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan, which won Best Feature, Best Director, Best Female Lead, and Best Cinematography and 127 Hours, which won Best Male Lead; Roadside Attractions’ Winter’s Bone, which won Best Supporting Female and Best Supporting Male; IFC Films’ Tiny Furniture, which won Best First Screenplay and Daddy Longlegs, which won the John Cassavetes Award; Focus Features’ The Kids Are All Right, which won Best Screenplay; The Weinstein Company’s the King’s Speech, which won Best Foreign Film; Producers Distribution Agency’s Exit Through the Gift Shop, which won Best Documentary; and Sony Pictures Classics’ Get Low, which won Best First Feature.
Also given was the 4th annual Robert Altman Award, given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give received this award, along with casting director Jeanne McCarthy and ensemble cast members Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, and Sarah Steele.
The following is a complete list of the winners:
Best Feature
Black Swan
Producers: Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian Oliver
Best Director
Darren Aronofsky
Black Swan
Best Screenplay
The Kids Are All Right
Writers: Stuart Blumberg & Lisa Cholodenko
Best First Feature
Get Low
Director: Aaron Schneider
Producers: David Gundlach, Dean Zanuck
Best First Screenplay
Lena Dunham
Tiny Furniture
John Cassavetes Award
(For the best feature made under $500,000)
Writers/Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
Daddy Longlegs
Producers: Casey Neistat, Tom Scott
Best Supporting Female
Dale Dickey
Winter’s Bone
Best Supporting Male
John Hawkes
Winter’s Bone
Best Female
Natalie Portman
Black Swan
Best Male
James Franco
127 Hours
Best Cinematography
Matthew Libatique
Black Swan
Best Foreign Film
The King’s Speech
Director: Tom Hooper
Best Documentary
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Banksy