26th Film Independent Spirit Awards - winners

Three months after announcing their nominees, Film Independent held their ceremony for the 26th Spirit Awards on the beach in Santa Monica. Black Swan dominated the evening by winning Best Feature, Best Director (Darren Aronofsky), Best Female Lead (Natalie Portman), and Best Cimenatography (Matthew Libatique). It won all four categories for which it was nominated.

Winter's Bone had led with seven nominations. It came away with two supporting acting awards for Dale Dickey and John Hawkes.

Oscars co-host James Franco won the award for Best Male Lead. He said, "Independent film is important to me, so this means a lot." He thanked Aaron Ralston for his "big big gift" and said "the crew, director and writer became my costars. It was a crazy crazy experience that I don't think I'll ever repeat."

Oscar front-runner The King's Speech won for Best Foreign Film. It was the only category for which it was eligible.

The Best Documentary Award went to Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop. There was an awkward pause as no one rose to accept, so finally Thierry Guetta a.k.a "Mr. Brainwash" went up to accept. He gave a rambling nonsensical acceptance speech, saying he had one but forgot to bring it.

The winner for Best Screenplay was Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right. Blumberg joked, "When Lisa and I started the screenplay, we were just a couple of lesbians with a hope and a dream."

Best First Feature went to Aaron Schneider's Get Low. Best First Screenplay was Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture.

Jeff Malmberg's Marwencol won the Truer Than Fiction Award and was given the Find Your Audience Award sposored by Jameson Irish Whiskey which comes with a $50,000 marketing and distribution grant.
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Complete list of winners for the 26th Film Independent Spirit Awards

BEST FEATURE
Black Swan

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

BEST SCREENPLAY
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Get Low

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Daddy Longlegs

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

BEST MALE LEAD
James Franco, 127 Hours

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Dale Dickey, Winter's Bone

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop

BEST FOREIGN FILM
The King's Speech

ACURA SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Mike Ott, Littlerock

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD
Anish Savjani, Meek's Cutoff

AVEENO® TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Jeff Malmberg, Marwencol

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Please Give
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Casting Director: Jeanne McCarthy
Ensemble Cast: Ann Guilbert, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Lois Smith, Sarah Steele

Jameson Find Your Audience Award

Jeff Malmberg, Marwencol