Today, the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards filmmakers took over Santa Monica State Beach to showcase the indie film world’s boldest voices. This isn’t your typical awards show — it’s a celebration of projects that push boundaries and take creative risks where quirky, electric energy and unfiltered speeches collide in a massive white tent.
After a whirlwind of 20 Spirit Awards nominations — including five for Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow and nods for Sugarcane and Girls Will Be Girls — Sundance-supported projects were well represented at the show as a new wave of filmmaking talent took center stage. As the ceremony unfolded, Dìdi (弟弟) and A Real Pain made their mark on the awards circuit, each earning two Spirit Awards, while Sarah Winshall, the producer of I Saw the TV Glow, took home the Producers Award. We’re incredibly proud of this year’s winners, who reflect a fresh take on filmmaking and the future of indie cinema.
Below, find all the 2025 Spirit Awards supported by Sundance Institute. And be sure to check out our socials to find chats with Girls Will Be Girls director Shuchi Talati, Dìdi (弟弟) actor Joan Chen and director Sean Wang, and more, who we caught up with on the blue carpet before the ceremony kicked off!
BEST SCREENPLAY
A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg — Premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where director Jesse Eisenberg won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic.
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Dìdi (弟弟) — Supported by the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship, Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship, and the Institute’s Directors and Screenwriters Labs and premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble.
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Sean Wang, Dìdi (弟弟)
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain — Premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where director Jesse Eisenberg won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic.
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Maisy Stella in My Old Ass — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
PRODUCERS AWARD PRESENTED BY BULLEIT FRONTIER WHISKEY
Sarah Winshall, I Saw the TV Glow — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Girls Will Be Girls — Premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic award and Preeti Panigrahi won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
No Other Land — Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund and the 2023 Documentary Edit and Story Lab.
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
A Photographic Memory, Rachel Elizabeth Seed — Supported by the 2019 Sundance Documentary Film Grant and the Documentary Edit and Story Lab.
