Independent Spirit Awards 2025: “Anora” Lands 3 Including Best Feature, “A Real Pain” & “Dìdi” Double-Up

The Indie Spirit Awards is that weird event that most commonly overlaps with the bigger film award show gala (aka the Academy Awards) and is not necessarily an indicator with what might happen Oscar night – but if we were to chart the past two decades we’d see a lot of win-win situations. The award season accolade narratives for Anora, A Real Pain and to some degree the Best Cinematography category (Jomo Fray for Nickel Boys) continued onwards yesterday afternoon (watch the show below). Sean Baker (who delivered one heck of a fiery speech about the current reality for new filmmakers) was an anointed king at the 40th annual Independent Spirit Awards – Anora lassoed Best Feature, Best Director and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison. Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Performance easily went to Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain while Dìdi landed both “firsts” category wins for Film and screenplay. The big surprise perhaps was Flow beating out Hard Truths and All We Imagine as Light as Best International film. Here are all the winners in the film categories including the previously announced trio of the The Producers, Someone to Watch and Truer Than Fiction Awards.

Anora (WINNER)
Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow
Producers: Ali Herting, Luca Intili, Dave McCary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall

Nickel Boys
Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine

Sing Sing
Producers: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton

The Substance
Producers: Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner

Best First Feature
Dìdi (WINNER) – Director/Producer: Sean Wang
In the Summers – Director: Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio
Janet Planet – Director/Producer: Annie Baker
The Piano Lesson – Director: Malcolm Washington
Problemista – Director/Producer: Julio Torres

John Cassavetes Award
Big Boys – Writer/Director/Producer: Corey Sherman
Ghostlight – Writer/Director: Kelly O’Sullivan
Girls Will Be Girls (WINNER) – Writer/Director/Producer: Shuchi Talati
Jazzy – Writer/Director/Producer: Morrisa Maltz
The People’s Joker – Writer/Director: Vera Drew

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

Best Lead Performance
Amy Adams – Nightbitch
Ryan Destiny – The Fire Inside
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Keith Kupferer – Ghostlight
Mikey Madison (WINNER) – 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
Kieran Culkin (WINNER) – 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 Breakthrough Performance
Isaac Krasner – Big Boys
Katy O’Brian – Love Lies Bleeding
Mason Alexander Park – National Anthem
René Pérez Joglar – In the Summers
Maisy Stella (WINNER) – My Old Ass

Best Cinematography
Dinh Duy Hung – Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Jomo Fray (WINNER) – Nickel Boys
Maria von Hausswolff – Janet Planet
Juan Pablo Ramírez – La Cocina
Rina Yang – The Fire Inside

Best Editing
Laura Colwell, Vanara Taing – Jazzy
Olivier Bugge Coutté, Olivia Neergaard-Holm – The Apprentice
Anne McCabe – Nightbitch
Hansjörg Weissbrich (WINNER) – September 5
Arielle Zakowski – Dìdi

Robert Altman Award
His Three Daughters (WINNER)

Best Documentary
Gaucho Gaucho – Directors/Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Hummingbirds – Directors: Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras
No Other Land (WINNER) – Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Patrice: The Movie – Ted Passon
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat – Johan Grimonprez

Best International Film
All We Imagine as Light – Payal Kapadia
Black Dog – Guan Hu
Flow (WINNER) – Gints Zilbalodis
Green Border – Agnieszka Holland
Hard Truths – Mike Leigh

Producers Award
Alex Coco
Sarah Winshall (WINNER)
Zoë Worth

Someone to Watch Award
Nicholas Colia – Director of Griffin in Summer
Sarah Friedland (WINNER) – Director of Familiar Touch
Pham Thien An – Director of Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Truer Than Fiction Award
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie – Directors of Sugarcane
Carla Gutiérrez – Director of Frida
Rachel Elizabeth Seed (WINNER) – Director of A Photographic Memory