Winter’s Bone was the big winner at the Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York.
The bleak drama, starring newcomer Jennifer Lawrence, scooped two awards including Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance at the glitzy ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street.
It beat the likes of Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right, Let Me In and Blue Valentine after being picked by a star-studded jury including Ethan Hawke, Anthony Mackie and Parker Poesy.
Ronald Bronstein stole the breakthrough actor gong from Jennifer for his portrayal of divorced dad-of-two Lenny Sokol in Daddy Longlegs.
Paul Rudd and Julianna Margulies presented Kevin Asch – the writer-director of Holy Rollers – with the breakthrough director award, while Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting For Superman was given the Festival Genius Audience gong.
Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank, director Darren Aronofsky and Focus Features CEO James Shamus received career tributes.
Other stars attending the awards include Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman and her Black Swan co-star Mila Kunis, Annette Bening and her co-star in The Kids Are All Right Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester.
The awards, now in its 20th year and in association with the Independent Filmmaker Project, celebrates the best of independent film and are the first honours of the film awards season.
