‘Precious’ Sweeps 25th Indie Spirit Awards

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire won Best Feature and a total of 5 awards tonight at the 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards. (FYI, The Hurt Locker can’t be nominated because it was shown at film festivals in 2008 before it found a distributor.) Comedian Eddie Izzard served as Master of Ceremonies at the late-night show at LA Live’s event deck in downtown Los Angeles. (No, it did not take place by the beach in Santa Monica this time around.) Here are all the winners:

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer)
Precious, Producers Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness

BEST DIRECTOR
Lee Daniels for Precious

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)
Crazy Heart – Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner, Judy Cairo, T Bone Burnett

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Humpday directed by Lynn Shelton

BEST SCREENPLAY
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber for 500 Days of Summer

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Gabourey Sidibe for Precious

BEST MALE LEAD
Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Mo’Nique for Precious

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Woody Harrelson for The Messenger

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins for A Serious Man

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil, directed by Sacha Gervasi.

BEST FOREIGN FILM (Award given to the director)
An Education directed by Lone Scheerfig

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
(Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)
A Serious Man — Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Ellen Chenoweth, Rachel Tenner, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Jessica McManus, Fred Melamed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Aaron Wolff

PRODUCERS AWARD
Karen Chien (The Exploding Girl, Santa Mesa)

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Kyle Patrick Alvarez for Easier With Practice

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Bill Ross, Turner Ross for 45365