After a night of laughs and honors, the winners of this year's Film Independent Spirit Awards have been announced. Acting as a sort of Oscar dress rehearsal, the awards show honored various movies, but one film stood out above all others which means it could stand its ground at tonight's Oscars.

Hosted by Patton Oswalt, the show was not short of jokes and interesting moments. The comedian took shots at everyone in attendance as well as commented on events in the news. He joked about veteran Nebraska actor Bruce Dern, saying, "Dern came to the Spirit Awards... for one last look at the beach." Dern responded by pulling out his hearing aid and showing it to the crowd. Oswalt added: "I really want to buy you a drink after this and talk about how Nebraska came together... not the movie, the state."

All jokes aside, the overall winner last night was Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave. The movie, which tells the story of a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, was nominated in seven categories and won in five: feature film, director, supporting female, screenplay and cinematography. McQueen was overjoyed at the news and thanked everyone who worked in the film.

Michael Fassbender is a genius," said McQueen of the actor, "he's feminine, he's masculine. Mr. Brando would be extremely proud of you sir ... there is nothing he won't do, nothing he can't do." However, he and Chiwetel Ejiofor lost to Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey for supporting male role and male lead respectively.

Cate Blanchett won the female lead role for her role in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. According to the Los Angeles Times, the actress mentioned the importance of more films with female main characters and also remarked about how there were only five female nominees as opposed to six male ones, a commentary on the snub of Greta Gerwig.

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