12 Years A Slave emerged victorious at the 29th Annual Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday (March 1), taking best feature and a handful of other awards.

Steve McQueen won best director on the eve of the 86th annual Academy Awards, while Oscar frontrunners Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club and Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine earned top acting honours.

Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o won supporting actor prizes for Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years A Slave, respectively.

Blue Is The Warmest Color won best international film, while 20 Feet From Stardom was named best documentary.

Slave also prevailed in the screenplay (John Ridley) and cinematograhy (Sean Bobbitt), categories.

Fruitvale Station won for best first feature, Bob Nelson took the best first screenplay prize for Nebraska, for best editing for Short Term 12.

The Robert Altman went to Mud and the John Cassavetes Award went to This Is Martin Bonner.