Here are the winners of the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Anora dominated in the film categories, while Baby Reindeer was the big winner in TV.
Anora, Image: Neon
Today marked the 40th installment of the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the show that dares to ask: What if the Oscars recognized and awarded movies (and TV) that people think are genuinely cool? (A contrast usually highlighted by the event traditionally taking place on the Saturday right before the Academy Awards, but no such luck in this fire-plagued year.) Still, the show—which primarily focuses on movies that cost less than $30 million to make—did have plenty of statues to handout, and Aidy Bryant to oversee the efforts to do so, so let’s hop into the winners.
Which included some early recognition for Sean Wang’s Didi, with Wang himself winning for Best First Screenplay, and the coming-of-age film picking up the Best First Feature award. Also in the “first-time winners” category: Maisy Stella, who won Best Breakthrough Performance In A Film for My Old Ass, and, over in TV, Jessica Gunning, who won Best Breakthrough Performance In A New Scripted Series for her work on Baby Reindeer. (Which actually swept the TV acting categories, with Richard Gadd and Nava Mau winning, too, while Shōgun won for best new series overall.)
In the less conditional awards: Jesse Eisenberg picked up a Best Screenplay win for his film A Real Pain, which also earned a Best Supporting Performance win for Kieran Culkin. Best director went to Anora‘s Sean Baker, who gave an impassioned speech about the need to change the funding model for independent film in a world where DVDs are no longer a reliable way to earn their creators a living wage. His star, Mikey Madison, took home Best Lead Performance In A Film—and then Baker was back up on the stage again when Anora won for Best Feature, too.
In other categories, Nickel Boys picked up an award for Best Cinematography, September 5‘s Hansjörg Weissbrich was named for Best Editing, and No Other Land scored the win for Best Documentary.
You can read the full list of winners at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards below:
Best Feature: Anora
Best First Feature: Didi
The John Cassavetes Award (given for films made for less than $1 million): Girls Will Be Girls
Best Director: Sean Baker, Anora