Black Swan nabs top prizes at Indie Spirit Award

The Film Independent Spirit Awards took place yesterday and the winners have been announced. Honouring “independent film” (let’s not go into too much of a discussion about what constitutes an “independent film” these days, but let’s just say that the term here certainly has looser determinants than it did once upon a time), the Film Independent Spirit Awards are an alternative to the coveted Academy Awards that give some of those smaller budget and more autonomously themed films the recognition they deserve but don’t always get amidst the Academy Machine.


Deadline reported the 26th event to be a very funny evening indeed, hosted by comedian Joel McHale. Complete with appearances from John Waters and Alex Trebek posing as Banksy in a Banksy-esque stunt, the evening saw a bunch of jokes one might expect such as the prediction that Michael Cera might murder on-the-up rival Jesse Eisenberg and the likening of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours to a Mountain Dew commercial, as well as a few jokes that make little sense to outsiders, such as Don Cheadle and Uma Thurman apparently being “The Fart Police” (*crickets*).

A couple of these films might be very independent indeed and of them Tiny Furniture and Get Low are amongst the lesser known. Of course, it’s no surprise that Black Swan took out more than one award here. A notable shame that Blue Valentine didn’t seem to win anything, and of all the films nominated, amongst which deservingly overlooked pictures such as Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give and Deborah Granik’s Winter’s Bone featured, the triumphant winners are as follows:

Best Feature: Black Swan

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan

Best Female Lead: Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Best Male Lead: James Franco - 127 Hours

Best Supporting Male: John Hawkes - Winter’s Bone

Best Supporting Female: Dale Dickey – Winter’s Bone

Best Screenplay: Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko – The Kids Are All Right

Best Foreign Film: The King’s Speech (United Kingdom)

Best Documentary: Exit Through The Gift Shop

John Cassavetes Award (best feature made for under $500,000): Daddy Longlegs

Best First Feature: Get Low

Best Cinematography: Matthew Libatique – Black Swan

Best First Screenplay: Lena Dunham – Tiny Furniture

Discuss: Did your favourite Indie flick pick up an award this year?