Smells like indie spirit

Taking place on the day before the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards honour American films which are financed and made outside of the traditional Hollywood studio system. Now in their 14th year, they have grown - like their cousin, the Sundance Film Festival - from relative obscurity, to a major media and marketing event.

Held in a giant tent erected on the beach in Santa Monica, the Spirit Awards have a laid-back feel that is the antithesis of Oscar night. It's still the rainy season in Los Angeles, and the weather co-operated beautifully by producing a brief rainstorm on Friday which washed away the legendry LA smog, giving one of those crystal-clear southern California spring days on which any star can look his or her best. So there I was, rubbing shoulders with Lisa Kudrow, Lara Flynn-Boyle and Minnie Driver, who lived up to her reputation as the biggest clotheshorse in the business with yet another fabulous ensemble. Even the Minnesota governor and former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura, was present trying to promote filmmaking in the Twin Cities.

Of course, the movie business is a lot different now than it was 14 years ago, and the boundaries between Independent and Hollywood have blurred considerably. With studios like Miramax and New Line now considered "mini-majors", the question of what is independent is becoming increasingly difficult to answer. That question aside, the Spirit Awards do serve one very important purpose: they honour performances that happen to be in movies too left of centre for Academy taste. This year, the Spirits nominated such superb performances as Ally Sheedy and Patricia Clarkson in High Art, Lisa Kudrow in The Opposite Of Sex and Dylan Baker in Happiness - all of whom should have been nominated, but were ignored, by the Oscars.

The Spirit nominations, like the Academy's, are based on movies released in the LA area over the previous year, with one major exception: they also include films shown at the most prestigious film festivals in north America that have yet to achieve a general release. It was because of this rule that the Irish-themed Claire Dolan achieved nominations in the Best Picture, Best Director (Lodge Kerrigan) and Best Actress (Katrin Cartlidge) categories. Although it left empty-handed, its high profile at the awards should guarantee it a distributor.

At a time when the word "independent" is becoming more and more ambiguous, it seemed fitting that the Spirit's honorary speaker was the original independent himself, John Waters, a man who really used to make movies on a shoestring. Although his most recent movies have lost the quintessential Waters touch, the man himself has lost none of that caustic wit. Introducing himself as "the only director who wishes that someone would colourise his early movies", he took us on a trip down memory lane and what it was like making movies with Divine, Mink Stole and the others back in Baltimore in the 1970s.

Hosted by Queen Latifah, the ceremony proceeded swiftly, with Bill Murray and West Anderson winning Best Supporting Actor and Best Director for Rushmore, Don Roos winning Best Screenplay and Best First Feature for The Opposite of Sex and Lynn Redgrave winning Best Supporting Actress for Gods And Monsters. Everything was going smoothly until former Brat Pack member Ally Sheedy won the Best Actress award for High Art. Taking the podium and grabbing presenter Rosanna Arquette for dear life, she talked for over 15 minutes about her 12 years in the dog house.

This was the Greer Garson of indie acceptance speeches and eventually, after what seemed like 15 hours, Sheedy was almost forcibly removed from the stage. She could have taken some pointers from the ever-gracious Sir Ian McKellen, who won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of the gay film director James Whale in Gods and Monsters (which also took home the Best Picture award). Accepting the award, he said: "I don't know whether things are changing, but here is an openly gay man saying thank you". Thank you indeed, Sir Ian.