Spotlight swept the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, the day before the Academy Awards, where it will be up for six Oscars, including best picture.

Tom McCarthy’s account of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer-winning investigation into a massive child molestation cover-up within the local Catholic archdiocese led the laid-back beachside event in Santa Monica with five wins, including best feature and best director.

The annual awards show serves as a counter to the Oscars, solely honoring the year’s best in independent film – or, as host Kumail Nanjiani of HBO’s Silicon Valley joked: “The Spirit awards honor the year’s best movies you’ve been meaning to see.”

Brie Larson, the Room star considered the frontrunner to win the Oscar for best actress, netted best female lead.

“[Independent film] is what helped me grow up,” she said. “It’s what helped make me see what a real woman was, what real love looked like, what messiness of life looks like.”

The young Ghanaian actor Abraham Attah was a surprise, winning best male lead for Beasts of No Nation. His co-star, Idris Elba, was also awarded, with best supporting male.

In a striking contrast to Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, which has been hit by a social media campaign under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, the Spirit Awards celebrated diversity in film, with three of the four of the acting awards going to people of color, including Tangerine breakout Mya Taylor, the first transgender actor to win a major award. She won best supporting female for Sean Baker’s micro-budget comedy, which was shot on an iPhone.

“There is transgender talent,” Taylor said. “There’s very beautiful transgender talent. You better get out there and put them in your next movie!”

The controversy surrounding this year’s Oscars – in which, for a second year in a row, no actors of color are nominated – loomed large over the event. Nanjiani and his co-host, Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon, poked fun at Sunday’s show in their opening monologue.

“Tonight we’re going to do everything we can’t do at the Oscars, baby,” McKinnon said. “We’re going to cuss, we’re going to flash some nip. We’re gonna nominate some people who aren’t white!”

“Tonight’s nominees are more diverse than the cover of a brochure for a liberal arts college,” Nanjiani said, “while the Oscar nominees are as diverse as the actual student body of a liberal arts college.”

Full list of winners

Best feature: Spotlight

Best female lead: Brie Larson, Room

Best male lead: Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation

Best director: Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

Best supporting female: Mya Taylor, Tangerine

Best international film: Son of Saul

Best screenplay: Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight

John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature made for a budget under $500,000): Krisha

Best cinematography: Ed Lachman, Carol

Robert Altman Award: Spotlight

Best first feature: The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Best documentary: The Look of Silence

Best first screenplay: Emma Donoghue, Room

Best supporting male: Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation

Best editing: Tom McArdle, Spotlight