Continuously updated… Today marks the grand celebration of independent cinema and television at the 40th Film Independent Spirit Awards, held at Santa Monica Pier. As the climax of the movie awards season approaches, we’re live updating the winner’s list right here. Tune into the livestream to catch all the action:
Jesse Eisenberg clinched the Best Screenplay award for his work in Searchlight’s A Real Pain.
The award for Best First Feature was bestowed upon Didi, while the Oscar-nominated No Other Land — a poignant documentary about a village in the occupied West Bank — secured Best Documentary. Additionally, Girls Will Be Girls received the John Cassavetes Award for the best feature produced on a budget under $1 million.
Maisy Stella was honored with the Best Breakthrough Performance for her role in My Old Ass.
Live Updates on Deadline
Baby Reindeer emerged as a double winner: Jessica Gunning won for Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series, shortly followed by Nava Mau’s win for Supporting Performance.
RELATED: 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Key Dates for Oscars, Spirits, Tonys, Guilds & More
Neon’s Anora and A24’s I Saw the TV Glow entered the ceremony, hosted by former SNL star Aidy Bryant, leading with six nominations each. They compete in the prestigious Best Feature category against Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys, A24’s Sing Sing and Mubi’s The Substance.
Last year, Past Lives won Best Feature and Best Director for Celine Song at the Spirit Awards but did not take home the Best Picture Oscar, which went to Oppenheimer. This year’s Spirit Award winners won’t impact the Academy Awards as Oscar voting closed on February 18.
Films eligible for the Spirit Awards must have a production cost of no more than $30M, excluding titles like Netflix’s Emilia Perez, Searchlight’s A Complete Unknown and Focus Features’ Conclave from contention.
RELATED: Gallery of All Best Picture Oscar Winners
FX’s Shōgun leads the television nominations with five, followed by the network’s English Teacher and Netflix’s Baby Reindeer each with four.
The Spirit Awards has awarded gender-neutral acting prizes since 2022. Notable film nominees for Best Lead Performance include Oscar contenders Demi Moore (The Substance), Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Mikey Madison (Anora), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice).
RELATED: Film Independent President Josh Welsh Passes Away at 62
Below are the winners so far at the 2025 Spirit Awards — with two awards previously announced in December — and the remaining nominees:
Award Recipients
BEST SCREENPLAY
Jesse Eisenberg
A Real Pain
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Best feature made for under $1 million; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Girls Will Be Girls
Writer/Director/Producer: Shuchi Talati
Producers: Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne
BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)
Dìdi
Director/Producer: Sean Wang
Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Jessica Gunning
Baby Reindeer
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Nava Mau
Baby Reindeer
BEST DOCUMENTARY
No Other Land
Directors/Producers: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Producers: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Maisy Stella
My Old Ass
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Previously announced)
How to Die Alone
Ensemble Cast: Melissa DuPrey, Jaylee Hamidi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Arkie Kandola, Elle Lorraine, Michelle McLeod, Chris “CP” Powell, Conrad Ricamora, Natasha Rothwell, Jocko Sims
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast; previously announced)
His Three Daughters
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
Nominees
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Yura Borisov
Anora
Joan Chen
Dìdi
Kieran Culkin
A Real Pain
Danielle Deadwyler
The Piano Lesson
Carol Kane
Between the Temples
Karren Karagulian
Anora
Kani Kusruti
Girls Will Be Girls
Brigette Lundy-Paine
I Saw the TV Glow
Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin
Sing Sing
Adam Pearson
A Different Man
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
Sean Wang
Dìdi
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the creator, executive producer, and co-executive producer)
Baby Reindeer
Creator/Executive Producer: Richard Gadd
Executive Producers: Wim De Greef, Petra Fried, Matt Jarvis, Ed Macdonald
Diarra From Detroit
Creator/Executive Producer: Diarra Kilpatrick
Executive Producers: Kenya Barris, Miles Orion Feldsott, Darren Goldberg
Co-Executive Producers: Ester Lou, Mark Ganek
English Teacher
Creator/Executive Producer: Brian Jordan Alvarez
Executive Producers: Paul Simms, Jonathan Krisel, Dave King
Co-Executive Producers: Kathryn Dean, Jake Bender, Zach Dunn
Fantasmas
Creator/Executive Producer: Julio Torres
Executive Producers: Emma Stone, Dave McCary, Olivia Gerke, Alex Bach, Daniel Powell
Co-Executive Producer: Ali Herting
Shōgun
Creators/Executive Producers: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks
Executive Producers: Edward L. McDonnell, Michael De Luca, Michaela Clavell
Co-Executive Producers: Shannon Goss, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Award given to the creator, executive producer, and co-executive producer)
Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color
Executive Producers: Idris Elba, Johanna Woolford Gibbon, Jamilla Dumbuya, Jos Cushing, Khaled Gad, Matt Robins, Chris Muckle, Sean David Johnson, Simon Raikes
Co-Executive Producer: Annabel Hobley
Hollywood Black
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 Burkhart
Co-Executive Producers: David C. Brown, Laurens Grant
Photographer
Executive Producers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Pagan Harleman, Betsy Forhan
Co-Executive Producers: Anna Barnes, Brent Kunkle
Ren Faire
Executive Producers: Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Dani Bernfeld, Lance Oppenheim, David Gauvey Herbert, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez
Co-Executive Producers: Abigail Rowe, Christian Vasquez, Max Allman
Social Studies
Creator/Executive Producer: Lauren Greenfield
Executive Producers: Wallis Annenberg, Regina K. Scully, Andrea van Beuren, Frank Evers, Caryn Capotosto
BEST EDITING
Laura Colwell, Vanara Taing
Jazzy
Olivier Bugge Coutté, Olivia Neergaard-Holm
The Apprentice
Anne McCabe
Nightbitch
Hansjörg Weissbrich
September 5
Arielle Zakowski
Dìdi
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Dinh Duy Hung
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Jomo Fray
Nickel Boys
Maria von Hausswolff
Janet Planet
Juan Pablo Ramírez
La Cocina
Rina Yang
The Fire Inside
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD (Recognizes a filmmaker of unique vision who has not yet received due recognition)
Nicholas Colia
Director of Griffin in Summer
Sarah Friedland
Director of Familiar Touch
Pham Thien An
Director of Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD (Given to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition)
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie
Directors of Sugarcane
Carla Gutiérrez
Director of Frida
Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Director of A Photographic Memory
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
All We Imagine as Light
France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg
Director: Payal Kapadia
Black Dog
China
Director: Guan Hu
Flow
Latvia, France, Belgium
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Green Border
Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Hard Truths
United Kingdom
Director: Mike Leigh
PRODUCERS AWARD (Honors emerging producers who demonstrate creativity, tenacity, and vision despite limited resources)
Alex Coco
Sarah Winshall
Zoë Worth
BEST DIRECTOR
Ali Abbasi
The Apprentice
Sean Baker
Anora
Brady Corbet
The Brutalist
Alonso Ruizpalacios
La Cocina
Jane Schoenbrun
I Saw the TV Glow
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Brian Jordan Alvarez
English Teacher
Richard Gadd
Baby Reindeer
Lily Gladstone
Under the Bridge
Kathryn Hahn
Agatha All Along
Cristin Milioti
The Penguin
Julianne Moore
Mary & George
Hiroyuki Sanada
Shō
Similar Posts
- Owen Cooper, Jenny Slate Tie for Top Supporting Roles at Gotham TV Awards!
- “Presumed Innocent” Eyes Emmy as Limited Series, Renewed for Season 2 by Apple!
- Elizabeth Olsen to Lead FX’s New Drama ‘Seven Sisters’ with Director Sean Durkin
- Idina Menzel Teams Up With Agent Bonnie Bernstein at Gersh Agency!
- Ben Stiller Stars in HBO’s New Music Dramedy ‘The Band’ from ‘Search Party’ Creators!
Taylor Monroe takes readers behind the scenes of the entertainment industry, from Hollywood trends to rising stars. With a passion for storytelling, Taylor brings engaging and fresh perspectives.
