Michelle Williams may have an unwinnable battle on her hands to garner any Oscar glory on Sunday evening, against the big guns of Meryl Streep and Viola Davis, but there was no doubting who was the darling of the room when she collected her Best Female Award at the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Saturday.
Williams got the biggest applause of the night when she was presented with her gong for her role of Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, one of the crop of films this year from producing powerhouse Harvey Weinstein, who was sitting next to Williams for the ceremony, and looked as pleased as punch when her name was called out.
Williams, who had previously received a Golden Globe for the role, was looking particularly striking, with a conservatively cut tuxedo blazer undercut by an extremely short skirt, her hair cut as elfin as ever and a quirky handbag styled out of a copy of J D Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Standing facing the audience, she looked like the natural heir to Audrey Hepburn as this generation's gamine icon.
Williams told the audience that she first visited the Independent Spirit Awards, seen as a far more relaxed affair each year than the regimated Oscar ceremony, ten years ago, when she "bought her own clothes and cut her own hair, and that, unlike other places, was cool".
She went on, "And now I'm here and all that I own of my own is my dignity."
PHOTOS FROM THE SPIRIT AWARDS: