Spirit Award Winner: Richard Gadd, Lead Performance In A Scripted Series For ‘Baby Reindeer’
Refresh for latest… It’s the Indies’ Biggest Day. The 40th anniversary Film Independent Spirit Awards are being handed out this afternoon at the Santa Monica Pier, celebrating the year’s best in indie film and TV as the movie awards season near its peak. Deadline is posting the winners live as they are announced. Check out the list below and watch the livestream here:
Sean Baker won Best Director for his Best Picture Oscar nominated Anora and called himself “an indie film lifer.” He said from the stage: “Indie film is struggling now more than ever. … How do you support yourself with little or no income for three years?” He said that’s the average length of time a person must dedicate to making movie.
Jesse Eisenberg won Best Screenplay for Searchlight’s A Real Pain, and his co-star Kieran Culkin took the Best Supporting Performance prize. The Spirit Awards have presented gender-neutral acting prizes since 2022.
Writer-director-producer Sean Wang’s Focus Features coming-of-age dramedy Didi also is a double winner today, taking Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.
Sideshow/Janus Films’ animated Flow from Latvia won Best International Feature, another Oscar nominee, No Other Land, about the destruction of a village in the occupied West Bank, won Best Documentary.
Jomo Fray for Best Cinematography for Nickel Boys, and Hansjörg Weissbrich took Best Editing for September 5.
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The first award of the day went to Maisy Stella, who won Best Breakthrough Performance for My Old Ass.
Girls Will Be Girls won the John Cassavetes Award for best feature made for under $1 million.
FX’s Shōgun, which came onto the ceremony co-leading the TV nominations with five, won Best New Scripted Series. Netflix’s Baby Reindeer already has won twice: Jessica Gunning took Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series, right after Nava Mau later won for Supporting Performance.
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Neon’s Anora and A24’s I Saw the TV Glow come into the ceremony hosted by SNL alum Aidy Bryant with a leading six nominations apiece including the marquee Best Feature, where they’ll vie against Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys, A24’s Sing Sing and Mubi’s The Substance.
Past Lives won Best Feature and Best Director for Celine Song at last year’s Spirit Awards but lost the Best Picture Oscar to Oppenheimer. Today’s Spirit winners won’t influence the Academy Award race because Oscar voting ended on February 18.
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A movie’s threshold for qualification at the Spirits is that its production cost can’t exceed $30M. Hence, such major awards-season titles as Netflix’s Emilia Perez, Searchlight’s A Complete Unknown and Focus Features’ Conclave are not eligible.
Here are the winners so far at the 2025 Spirit Awards — two of which were announced in December — followed by the remaining nominees:
Winners
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Richard Gadd
Baby Reindeer
BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker
Anora
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
Flow
Latvia, France, Belgium
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Kieran Culkin
A Real Pain
BEST EDITING
Hansjörg Weissbrich
September 5
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jomo Fray
Nickel Boys
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Sean Wang
Dìdi
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Award given to the creator, executive producer and co-executive producer)
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
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the creator, executive producer and co-executive producer)
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 SCREENPLAY
Jesse Eisenberg
A Real Pain
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
PRODUCERS AWARD (Honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films; previously announced)
Sarah Winshall
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD (Presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition; previously announced)
Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Director of A Photographic Memory
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
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
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD (Recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition; previously announced)
Sarah Friedland
Director of Familiar Touch
Nominees
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Amy Adams
Nightbitch
Ryan Destiny
The Fire Inside
Colman Domingo
Sing Sing
Keith Kupferer
Ghostlight
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 FEATURE (Award given to the producer)
Anora
Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan
I Saw the TV Glow
Producers: Ali Herting, Sam 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
