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Anora, Didi and Baby Reindeer Are Multiple 2025 Film Independent Spirit Award Winners
Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in Anora Sean Baker’s Anora was the big winner at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards, held yesterday at California’s Santa Monica beach. The film, about a stripper’s ill-fated marriage to a Russian oligarch’s son, picked up prizes for Best Film, Best Director and, for Mikey Madison’s lead performance, Best Lead Performance. Other films and TV shows picking up multiple wins were A Real Pain (Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Performance), Didi (Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay) and Baby Reindeer (Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series, Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series, Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series).
No Other Land continued its sweep of documentary awards, winning Best Documentary, and the Latvian animated picture Flow won Best International Film. Girls Will Be Girls won the John Cassavetes Award for films made for less than $1 million.
The Spirits have a $30 million budget cap, so various films appearing in the Oscar race, like A Complete Unknown and Emilia Perez, weren’t eligible.
In his acceptance speech, Baker spoke of being an “independent lifer” and addressed the issue of director fees and sustainability, a topic injected into the conversation last week when Brady Corbet spoke on the WTF podcast about having made “no money” on The Brutalist. Using three years as an average length of time needed to get an independent film made (while acknowledging that it’s often much longer), Baker asked, “How do you support yourself with little or no income for 3 years?”
Continuing, he said:
Let’s say you’re lucky enough to be with the guilds. Take the DGA and WGA minimums and then divide them by three. Take out taxes and possibly percentages that you owe your agents, managers, and lawyers, and what are you left with? It’s just simply not enough to get by on in today’s world, especially if one is is trying to support a family. I personally do not have children, but I know for a fact that if I did, I would not be able to make the movies that I make….
We are creating product that creates jobs and revenue for the entire industry. We shouldn’t be barely getting by. Creatives that are involved with projects that span years have to begin getting higher — much higher — upfront fees, and again, because back end simply can’t be relied upon any longer, we have to demand that. If not, indie films will simply become calling card films, and I know that’s not what I signed up for. So let’s demand what we’re worth. I know that if you’re in this room, you’ve proven that you’re worth it, so let’s not undervalue ourselves any longer. And we can work together, it can be filmmakers working with agencies, working with financiers, film sales companies, and distributors to make indie film sustainable for creatives and keep indie film alive. This is for all the indie film lifers who are holding on and fighting the good fight.
Baker also recognized the last Josh Welsh, Film Independent’s president, who died last month, calling him “a true champion of independent voices and a wonderful, kind human being.” Welsh was also remembered by Film Independent acting president Brenda Walsh, who said:
Josh is a visionary of the type that comes along once in a lifetime. We want his work and impact to continue on, because he is a great leader. He is a person of exceptional character. I speak about him very deliberately in the present tense, because he is still here. He’s here. We will feel his spirit in the programs he created and the lives of filmmakers who he impacted always, and in all ways. Josh is only absent in the body, but the spirit of who Josh is and what he means to this community, that is forever.
Below are all the winners of the 2025 Spirit Awards.
Best Feature
Anora (NEON)
Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan
Best Director
Sean Baker, Anora (NEON)
Best Screenplay
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)
Best First Feature
Dìdi (Focus Features)
Director: Sean Wang
Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters
Best First Screenplay
Sean Wang, Dìdi (Focus Features)
John Cassavetes Award
(for best feature made under $1,000,000)
Girls Will Be Girls (Juno Films)
Writer/Director/Producer: Shuchi Talati
Producers: Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne
Best Breakthrough Performance
Maisy Stella, My Old Ass (Amazon MGM Studios)
Best Supporting Performance
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain (Searchlight Pictures)
Best Lead Performance
Mikey Madison, Anora (NEON)
Robert Altman Award
His Three Daughters (Netflix)
Director: Azazel Jacobs
Casting Director: Nicole Arbusto
Ensemble Cast: Jovan Adepo, Jasmine Bracey, Carrie Coon, Jose Febus, Rudy Galvan, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Randy Ramos Jr., Jay O. Sanders
Best Cinematography
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys (Amazon MGM Studios)
Best Editing
Hansjörg Weissbrich, September 5 (Paramount Pictures)
Best International Film
Flow (Sideshow and Janus Films)
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Best Documentary
No Other Land
Director: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Producer: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning
Someone to Watch
Sarah Friedland, Familiar Touch
Truer Than Fiction
Rachel Elizabeth Seed, A Photographic Memory
Producers Award
Sarah Winshall
TELEVISON CATEGORIES
Best New Scripted Series
Shōgun (FX)
Creators/Executive Producers: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks
Executive Producers: Edward L. McDonnell, Michael De Luca, Michael Clavell
Co-Executive Producers: Shannon Goss, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Jamie Vega Wheeler
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
Hollywood Black (MGM+)
Executive Producers: Shayla Harris, Dave Sirulnick, Stacey Reiss, Jon Kamen, Justin Simien, Kyle Laursen, Forest Whitaker, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Jeffrey Schwarz, Amy Goodman Kass, Michael Wright, Jill Burkhard
Co-Executive Producers: David C. Brown, Laurens Grant
Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series
Nava Mau, Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series
Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series
Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series
How to Die Alone (Hulu)
Ensemble Cast: Melissa DuPrey, Jaylee Hamidi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Arkie Kandola, Elle Lorraine, Michelle McLeod, Chris “CP” Powell, Conrad Ricamora, Natasha Rothwell, Jocko Sims
