Brokeback Takes Independent Film Award

The Independent Spirit Awards are organised by Film Independent, a group that nurtures indie filmmakers. Winners are determined by the group's 9,000 members nationwide.

Ang Lee was named best director for the his work on the acclaimed drama, but his film had to share the spotlight with three other double-winners that will also vie for Oscar glory.

Capote took home the awards for male lead (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and screenplay (Dan Futterman); Transamerica won for female lead (Felicity Huffman) and first screenplay (Duncan Tucker) and Crash picked up honours for supporting male (Matt Dillon) and first feature.
 
Controversial Palestinian suicide-bomber drama Paradise Now won for best foreign film, and the big-business morality tale Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room won for best documentary.

Both films are competing for Oscars in their respective fields.

The Independent Spirit Awards are now in their 21st year. They honour low-budget films on  criteria such as originality, provocative subject matter and the degree of independent financing.

Traditionally, there is little crossover with the Academy Awards, since the Oscars generally favour big studio films, but this year could prove the exception as Brokeback Mountain has swept virtually every awards show.

Hoffman is favourite to win an Oscar for his role as novelist Truman Capote. But Huffman's performance as a pre-operative transsexual faces stiff competition for the actress prize from Reese Witherspoon, who played country singer June Carter in Walk the Line.

The Independent Spirit for supporting female went to Amy Adams, for her role as a kind-hearted southern belle in Junebug.

Both Dillon, who played a mean-spirited cop, and Adams are up for Oscars in generally competitive fields.

The leading Independent Spirit nominee, the family drama The Squid and the Whale, was beaten in all of its six categories.

Brokeback Mountain and Capote were among the quartet of films with four nominations. Brokeback star Heath Ledger lost out to Hoffman, and co-star Michelle Williams to Adams.

Capote lost the best feature category to Brokeback Mountain and the cinematography prize to George Clooney's newsroom saga Good Night, and Good Luck, which also had four nominations.

Tommy Lee Jones' frontier fable The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the other four-time contender, lost out in all counts.