SANTA MONICA, California, Feb 24, (Agencies): The oddball romance “Silver Linings Playbook” was named best picture Saturday at the Spirit Awards honoring independent film, Hollywood’s last pre-game show before the Academy Awards. “Silver Linings Playbook” led with four wins, including best actress for Jennifer Lawrence and director and screenplay for David O. Russell. Lawrence is the best-actress favorite at Sunday’s Oscars for her role as a young widow in a shaky new relationship with a man fresh from a mental hospital. “The Sessions” earned two acting prizes, for John Hawkes as a man in an iron lung hoping to lose his virginity and Helen Hunt as the sexual surrogate helping him through it.

The award for best supporting actor went to Matthew McConaughey as a flamboyant stripper in “Magic Mike.” In barely three years, Lawrence has risen from a relative unknown to superstar hero of “The Hunger Games” franchise and potential Oscar winner at just 22. Her quick ascent began with another Spirit Awards nominee, “Winter’s Bone,” which won the top honor at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and earned Lawrence her first Oscar nomination.

Thrill
Lawrence said she loves independent film for the thrill of freezing with the crew in the middle of the night because they all believe in a story. “That’s why I do what I do. I love that feeling. I mean, I’d rather be warm,” Lawrence said. McConaughey, also a best-actor nominee at the Spirit Awards for “Killer Joe,” is a Hollywood A-lister but a relative newcomer to key film awards. “I had to take my pants off to win a trophy,” McConaughey said, adding that five of his last six films were independent productions and the “most creative fun of my acting career, hands down.” Hunt, also nominated for supporting actress at the Oscars, was coy backstage about what she’ll be doing before Hollywood’s big night.

“I will be eating breakfast and getting dressed,” Hunt said of her day at the Oscars, where she previously won as best actress for “As Good as It Gets.”  “I don’t have any plans, but I’m going to put a dress on.”
“Silver Linings Playbook” filmmaker Russell noted that his initial trip to the Spirit Awards was 19 years ago, when he won the prize for best first film for “Spanking the Monkey.” His son Matthew, an inspiration for “Silver Linings” because of his battle with bipolar disorder, was a year old at the time, and was in the crowd to watch his father claim his awards.“He gave me this movie, so I want to thank him, Matthew, for this movie,” Russell said.

“Silver Linings Playbook” centers on the relationship between a man (Bradley Cooper) just out of a mental hospital and a young widow (Lawrence). The film is up for best picture at the Oscars, where Russell is nominated for adapted screenplay and director and Cooper and Lawrence are in the running for the lead-acting honors. The film’s producers said they had expected fellow Oscar best-picture nominee “Beasts of the Southern Wild” to win the top Spirit Award and that they have no expectations of winning the big prize at the Oscars, where Ben Affleck’s CIA thriller “Argo” is the best-picture favorite. But they gushed praise for filmmaker Russell.
 

Following is a list of winners at the event sponsored by Los Angeles-based Film Independent.
* Best Feature “Silver Linings Playbook”
* Best Female Lead Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
* Best Male Lead John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
* Best Supporting Female Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”
* Best Supporting Male Matthew McConaughey, “Magic Mike”
* Best Director David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
* Best Documentary “The Invisible War”
* Best Foreign Film “Amour”
* Best First Feature (Award given to the director and producer) “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
* Best Screenplay David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
* Best First Screenplay Derek Connolly, “Safety Not Guaranteed”
* Best Cinematography Ben Richardson, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000) “Middle of Nowhere”
Robert Altman Award (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast) “Starlet”
Piaget Producers Award Mynette Louie, “Stones in the Sun”
Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award Peter Nicks, “The Waiting Room”