<span class="s1"><em>Silver Linings Playbook</em> won the Best Film prize at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, as well as a Best Actress gong for Jennifer Lawrence and the Best Director award for David O -Russell.</span> <span class="s1">Receiving a publicity boost on the eve of the Oscars, the film stars Bradley Cooper as the recovering bipolar Pat who falls for Lawrence’s mixed-up Tiffany.</span> <span class="s1">The Austrian director Michael Haneke’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning <em>Amour</em> took the Best Foreign Film prize.</span> <span class="s1">Best Actor went to John Hawkes for playin</span>g a <span class="s1">man paralysed from the neck down in <em>The Sessions</em>.</span> <span class="s1">Russell stressed the health issues behind<em> Silver Linings Playbook</em>, saying: “I just want to say on behalf of any family that ever faced mood disorder or the stigma of mood disorder, any mental illness: this film is for you. </span> “I think that when you make a film from the heart, there’s no such thing as genre, there are just real people,” he told reporters. <span class="s1">Lawrence said: “I love doing independent films. The only thing that’s keeping you there is not money, it’s just the belief in the story and passion.”</span> <span class="s1">Haneke said the Spirit award “was given by a younger audience and that’s an important thing for a movie that deals with such a serious theme”.</span>