Hollywood Crush › Justin Lerner

It's been a long and winding road bringing the indie film "Girlfriend" to a national audience, but all that work has finally paid off. The flick, which stars Jackson Rathbone, Shannon Woodward and Evan Sneider, was awarded the 2011 Gotham Independent Film Audience Award at last night's Gotham Awards in New York City. The fan-voted award was the just the latest wave of support from "Girlfriend"'s ardent admirers.

The film's director, Justin Lerner, caught up with Hollywood Crush today to talk about the big win, which he called a "humbling moment." Appropriately, he thanked the fans of "Girlfriend" who voted to earn the movie its recognition.

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Tags Evan Sneider, Girlfriend, Jackson Rathbone, Justin Lerner, Shannon Woodward

Sometimes, critical acclaim, online buzz and a "Twilight" star just aren't enough for an indie film to reach a wider audience. Such is the case with the Toronto International Film Festival hit "Girlfriend," starring Shannon Woodward ("Raising Hope"), Evan Sneider (the first lead feature film actor with Down's Syndrome) and some guy you may have heard of named Jackson Rathbone.

As a way to get their film to as wide an audience as possible, the producers of "Girlfriend" created their own fundraising page on IndieGoGo.com. It's pretty simple: The adoring public spares some cash, and the producers will use that money to hold more screenings of the film in theaters, on demand and online.

Donors can receive anything from a special thanks on the "Girlfriend" website to a copy of the original screenplay. Especially deep-pocketed fans could even win a dinner for two with Evan, the star of the movie. Sounds pretty cool to us, but unfortunately we don't have an extra ten grand lying around. Maybe after we win the lottery...

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Tags Evan Sneider, Girlfriend, Jackson Rathbone, Justin Lerner, Shannon Woodward

In previous interviews with the director and cast of “Girlfriend,” the creators of the film were hesitant about revealing too many plot points. What was known was the plot involved a romance between "New Moon" star Jackson Rathbone and Shannon Woodward as ex-high school sweethearts, but a love triangle was also mentioned with the third angle not disclosed.

Earlier this week, on a visit to the set of “Girlfriend,” director Justin Lerner and his crew decided to share exclusively with MTV the large portion of plot they have been hiding secret: the film’s main character, Evan Grey.

Evan Grey (played by Evan Sneider, pictured, also inspired the character) is a man in his twenties with down syndrome who wants to find love from a woman, and the film (appropriately titled) is about his journey to find a girlfriend. During the course of the tale, Evan comes into some sort of means — which we assume to be money — that he uses to help the girl he's loved since high school (Shannon), who is currently a single mom.

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Tags Evan Sneider, Girlfriend, Jackson Rathbone, Justin Lerner, Shannon Woodward