All
three films are up for best picture at Sunday's Academy Awards, where Portman
is considered the favorite to win the best-actress Oscar and Franco is a
co-host alongside actress Anne Hathaway. With plenty of overlap among nominees
at the Oscars, the Spirit Awards are a warm-up for Hollywood's biggest party.
The British monarchy saga "The King's Speech," the best-picture
front-runner at the Oscars, won the prize for best foreign film.
"Black Swan" also took the cinematography award
for Matthew Libatique. Portman and Aronofsky joked about the difficulty in
getting "Black Swan" off the ground, with cash tight and few people
believing the film could ever make its money back. "My ballet teachers
were, like, every day, `So when do we get paid?'" said Portman, who won
for her role as a ballerina losing her grip on reality.