Juno Success At Independent Spirit Awards

25 February 2008

Juno may have missed out on Best Picture at the Oscars but it triumphed at Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards with three gongs.The popular indie film took Best Film beating off The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Paranoid Park, I'm No There and A Mighty Heart to claim the top prize.There was also success for leading lady Ellen Page who won Best Actress for her role as the teenager who discovers that she is pregnant and for writer Diablo Cody who won best first screenplay.Page said when she collected her award: 'She wrote one of the best screenplays I have ever read and created a teenage female lead I feel like we've never seen before. 'I got to work with some amazing actors who all poured their hearts into this film because we all believed in it so much.'Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor award for his role in The Savages and Julian Schnabel followed up his Golden Globe success winning best Director for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

A heavily pregnant Cate Blanchett paid tribute to her co-star Heath Ledger as she picked up the award for Best Supporting Actress in I'm Not There.

The actress said of Ledger: 'beautiful free spirit'.

I'm Not There also won the very first Robert Altman Award for a filmmaker, casting director and acting ensemble cast which was also dedicated to Ledger by director Todd Hayes: 'He never left the set - I think he was really interested in watching the process of film-making and how we were going about it.

'He offered great suggestions too, all of which I used. I have no doubt he would have made an astounding director.'

The best foreign award went to the surprise success of 2007 Once, which was a success at Sundance.

Best Feature: Juno

Best Male Lead: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages

Best Female Lead: Ellen Page, Juno

Best Supporting Male: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Talk to Me

Best Supporting Female: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

Best Director: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Screenplay: Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

Best First Feature: The Lookout

Best First Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno