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AP) - A made-in-Minnesota movie has been
honored at the Spirit Awards, which highlight the best in
independent film.

      St. Paul-based writer and director Ali Selim won best first
feature for "Sweet Land," a story of immigrant struggles in
1920s rural Minnesota. It cost about $1 million to make, and was filmed near Montevideo.

      Saturday's big winner was "Little Miss Sunshine," which won best
picture and three other Spirit Awards.

      The road comedy about a deeply dysfunctional family also won the
supporting-actor award for Alan Arkin; best director for the
husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and
best first screenplay for Michael Arndt.

Robert Altman - nominated as best director for his final film,
"A Prairie Home Companion" - was saluted with an honorary Spirit
Award for his lifetime devotion to independent film. Altman died
last November.

      Spirit Awards organizers have created a new prize, the Robert
Altman Award, which beginning next year will be given out to a
film's director and acting ensemble - a nod to Altman's gift for
overseeing large, overlapping casts.

      - Best foreign film, "The Lives of Others," Germany, directed
by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

      - Best documentary, "The Road to Guantanamo," directed by
Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross.

      - Best cinematography, Guillermo Navarro, "Pan's Labyrinth."


  The Spirit Awards are presented by the cinema group Film
Independent to films costing less than $20 million to produce.

Other guidelines for nominations include a film's uniqueness of
vision, original, provocative subject matter and percentage of
financing that comes from independent sources outside the Hollywood
studio system.


      The prizes were handed out in Santa Monica, California, the day
before the Academy Awards.

Gallery

The success of "Sweet Land"

Beatty and Guinee on "Sweet Land"

Ali Selim's long trek to "Sweet Land"

First-time director changes his homeland --  and gets an Oscar nomination

Doug Jones gets inside his characters

Director Robert Altman dead at 81

Keillor remembers friend and partner Robert Altman

The stars come back to St. Paul for Prairie Home premiere

St. Paul-based writer and director Ali Selim won best first
feature for "Sweet Land," a story of immigrant struggles in
1920s rural Minnesota. It cost about $1 million to make, and was filmed near Montevideo.


"Sweet Land" wins a Spirit Award for independent film

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