The 2012 Spirit Awards, honoring films made outside the major Hollywood studios and for limited budgets, got started with a ringing endorsement from host Seth Rogen.

"Welcome to the only awards show that is completely inconsequential," said Rogen, setting the tone for an awards show that likes to think of itself as Oscar's feistier, edgier cousin.

Rogen, to much laughter and applause from the audience, went on to poke fun at their determinedly anti-mainstream movies -- "I made it through the first five minutes of every one of them," he said -- and the giant oceanside tent here in Santa Monica in which the awards were announced.

"It kind of feels like we're all camping together," he said.

The awards will be handed out beginning in just a few moments. More later.