'The Look of Silence' takes Independent Spirit Award

Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary goes for the Oscar on Sunday

The biggest weekend of awards season is off to an excellent start for Joshua Oppenheimer.

His film The Look of Silence won best documentary at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif. on Saturday, on the eve of the Oscars. It's up for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, facing competition from Asif Kapadia's Amy; Cartel Land, directed by Matthew Heineman; What Happened, Miss Simone? from director Liz Garbus, and Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. 

The Look of Silence is second only to Amy in terms of the number of honors it has accumulated leading up to the Academy Awards. It was named Best Documentary at both the Gotham Awards and the International Documentary Association awards. And it was named Best Foreign Language Film by the London Film Critics Association,