Nearly all the major nominees who didn't hear their name read out at last Sunday's Oscars already had the consolation of being declared winners the previous evening on Santa Monica beach at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. Mickey Rourke picked up best actor for The Wrestler ahead of his Oscar nemesis and close friend, Milk's Sean Penn. Melissa Yeo won best actress for Frozen River, which perhaps explains her happiness in applauding Kate Winslet's Oscar win. One of the surprise omissions from the Oscar nominations, apart from the inexplicable shunning of Gran Torino, was Darren Aronovsky's failure to make it to the best director short-list for The Wrestler, so his best feature Indie – together with a best cinematography Indie – was fair vindication. Laurent Cantet's Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Class – which was chosen to represent France at the Oscars ahead of Couscous, to my mind the best film of 2008, and was favourite to win the best foreign picture – surprisingly lost out to Yojiro Takita's Japanese entry Departures, but there was no mistake about its Indie win. The fact that so many Indie front-runners also featured in the Oscar line-up is an indication of the growing power of low-budget independent film-makers. Eligibility for the Indies is limited to films with budgets under $20m, including all post-production costs. James Marsh's documentary Man On Wire and Penelope Cruz's best supporting role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona were the Indie winners also to win Oscars.