Both are up for the same honors at Sunday's Academy Awards, where Mo'Nique is the front-runner for her searing performance as the loathsome mother of an abused teenage girl, played by Gabourey Sidibe in her screen debut. Sidibe was nominated for best actress at the Spirit Awards and the Oscars.
"Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire" also won for best screenplay by a first-time writer for Geoffrey Fletcher. The film was tied for the lead at Spirit Awards with five nominations, including best picture, for which it also is competing at the Oscars.
Harrelson won for his role as a soldier breaking news to next of kin that a love one has died in action. He had kind words for the other nominees, who included fellow Oscar contender Christopher Plummer for the Leo Tolstoy drama "The Last Station."
The country-music drama "Crazy Heart" won for best debut film for first-time director Scott Cooper.
"Crazy Heart" star Jeff Bridges, the best-actor favorite at the Oscars for his role as a boozy country star trying to turn his life around, performed one of the tunes he sings in the film at the Spirit Awards.
Also up for best picture at the Spirit Awards are "The Last Station," the romance "(500) Days of Summer," and the immigrant stories "Amreeka" and "Sin Nombre."
Presented by the cinema group Film Independent, the Spirit Awards honor movies that cost less than $20 million to make, with a significant part of their budget originating outside the Hollywood studio system. Other criteria for nominations include originality and provocative subject matter.
