David O Russell’s Oscar-hopeful Silver Linings Playbook has taken the top awards at the Independent Spirit Awards, in a marquee on the Santa Monica sea-front.

The film won the Best Feature prize and the writer-director himself took the trophy for both of his roles. The film’s star Jennifer Lawrence was voted the Best Lead Actress, but her co-star Bradley Cooper missed out in the Best Lead Actor category to John Hawkes, who portrayed a quadriplegic polio survivor who wanted to experience sex in The Sessions.

His co-star, Helen Hunt was the Best Supporting Actress, while the Best Supporting Actor honours went to Matthew McConnaughey for Magic Mike.

The organisation behind the awards, Film Independent, gave the Best First Feature prize to  Stephen Chbosky, for The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Derek Connolly won the Best First Screenplay award for Safety Not Guaranteed..

The underdog at the Oscars, Beasts of the Southern Wild, came away with only one trophy, for its cinematographer, Ben Richardson.

Two other winners who are also up for Oscars are the Best Documentary, which went to Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War – about rape in the US military – and Michael Haneke, who collected the Best International Film award for Amour.