Film Independent Spirit Awards 2025: Complete winners list

The Film Independent Spirit Awards returned with their 40th ceremony on Saturday, with Anora, its star Mikey Madison, and director Sean Baker dominating the film category awards. Baby Reindeer led in the TV acting category winners, though Shōgun took the New Scripted Series award.

Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant hosted the awards show, which honors independent and low-budget film projects and television. The ceremony took place in Santa Monica and streamed live on Film Independent’s YouTube channel and X (formerly Twitter) feed.

The Indie Spirits are a distinct organization in the awards season landscape because they’re specifically designed to focus on smaller film productions — to qualify for the awards, the maximum budget a movie can have is $28 million (though there’s no budget cap on the TV side — the shows just have to be new this year).

As a result, the Indie Spirits only sometimes overlap with the Oscars — smaller-budget films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nomadland, and Moonlight have all found major success with both awards bodies, whereas movies like Past Lives have triumphed at the Spirits in years when higher-budget productions like Oppenheimer win big at the Academy Awards.

Another key distinction that sets the Indie Spirits apart from other awards shows: all acting categories at the Indie Spirits are gender-neutral, so there are fewer categories overall for both film and TV: Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, and Best Breakthrough Performance for both mediums, plus a Best Ensemble Cast on the TV side.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow dominated the film category nominations with five each, with Anora winning three awards overall. Shōgun led the TV field, with five nominations, though it won only one award for Best New Scripted Series. Projects like Dìdi, Baby Reindeer, and English Teacher all received four nominations each, with Didi winning in two categories and Baby Reindeer winning three. The Apprentice, Janet Planet, Sing Sing, and Agatha All Along all garnered three nominations apiece, but saw no awards between them.

See all the winners below.

MOVIES

Best Feature

WINNER: Anora
I Saw the TV Glow
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
The Substance

Best Director

Ali Abbasi, The Apprentice
WINNER: Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Alonso Ruizpalacios, La Cocina
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow

Best First Feature

WINNER: Dìdi
In the Summers
Janet Planet
The Piano Lesson
Problemista

Best Lead Performance

Amy Adams, Nightbitch
Ryan Destiny, The Fire Inside
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight
WINNER: Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Hunter Schafer, Cuckoo
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow
June Squibb, Thelma
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Best Supporting Performance

Yura Borisov, Anora
Joan Chen, Dìdi
WINNER: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson
Jack Haven, I Saw the TV Glow
Carol Kane, Between the Temples
Karren Karagulian, Anora
Kani Kusruti, Girls Will Be Girls
Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, Sing Sing
Adam Pearson, A Different Man

Best Breakthrough Performance

Isaac Krasner, Big Boys
Katy O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding
Mason Alexander Park, National Anthem
René Pérez Joglar, In the Summers
WINNER: Maisy Stella, My Old Ass

Best Screenplay

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Heretic
WINNER: Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Megan Park, My Old Ass
Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow

Best First Screenplay

Joanna Arnow, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Annie Baker, Janet Planet
India Donaldson, Good One
Julio Torres, Problemista
WINNER: Sean Wang, Dìdi

Best Documentary

Gaucho Gaucho
Hummingbirds
WINNER: No Other Land
Patrice: The Movie
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Best International Film

All We Imagine as Light
Black Dog
WINNER: Flow
Green Border
Hard Truths

Best Cinematography

Đinh Duy Hưng, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
WINNER: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Maria von Hausswolff, Janet Planet
Juan Pablo Ramírez, La Cocina
Rina Yang, The Fire Inside