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Three years ago, a shocking announcement took the indie movie world by storm. After just one screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, tiny-budget indie movie The People's Joker was pulled from the festival per Warner Bros.' request. It was just the beginning of a lengthy process, but the movie came out on the other side with a theatrical release. We recently caught up with director Vera Drew and co-writer Bri LeRose, who spoke to Collider about the movie's insane journey.

Arriving on a busy blue carpet for a gray day at the beach, guests at the 2025 Indie Spirit Awards agreed: It’s time to Make the Movies Messy Again.

Inside the ceremony tent, host Aidy Bryant put it perfectly when she said, “It’s been a great year for film and a bad year for human life.” Hundreds of the most important decision-makers and visionary artists championing creative independence today gathered in Santa Monica, California on Saturday to honor the best in boundary-breaking film and TV.

“Anora” and “Baby Reindeer” won the most categories in several tight races, but the show’s main source of dramatic tension came from the countless news items surrounding a tough awards season. From fraught talk of cultural fascism to economic critiques of the entertainment industry, honorees and their peers predicted an uncertain but fiery future for filmmakers, cast, and crew. The word “messy” came...

Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in ‘Anora’ (Courtesy of Neon)

Anora continues to pick up speed heading into the Oscars, scoring Critics Choice Awards and DGA wins and snagging a Best Feature win at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Anora also captured Best Director (Sean Baker) and Best Lead Performance (Mikey Madison) wins. A Real Pain and Didi each earned two awards during the February 22, 2025 Spirit Awards ceremony hosted by Aidy Bryant.

On the television side, Baby Reindeer dominated with three wins. The critically acclaimed limited series took home the Best Lead Performance (Richard Gadd), Best Supporting Performance (Nava Mau), and Best Breakthrough Performance (Jessica Gunning) wins. Other television winners included Shogun and How to Die Alone.

2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees and Winners

Best Feature

Winner: Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow

Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary,...

“Joker: Folie à Deux” may not have many fans, but those who do appreciate its contrarian energy really love saying so. No, we’re not just talking about Quentin Tarantino, but “The People’s Joker” herself, Vera Drew. Speaking in a recent interview with “The Independent,” the indie filmmaker voiced her admiration for co-writer/director Todd Phillips’ efforts and the whole team’s commitment to subverting expectations.

“It’s a middle finger to incels and ‘Joker’ (2019) fans,” said Drew. “There’s a sequence in ‘Joker 2’ where Joaquin Phoenix loses his virginity to Lady Gaga, and he cums in less than four seconds. How could I not love that film? It had a sexy grossness to it that I was just not anticipating. Todd Phillips, please call me.”

This praise carries a huge weight coming from Drew, as “Joker” was the film that kicked off a journey that resulted in her own creation,...

Vera Drew as Joker the Harlequin in The People's Joker. Photo: courtesy of Matchbox Cine

In the first part of my interview with writer/director/star Vera Drew about her award-winning breakout hit The People’s Joker, we spoke about the character in whom she found her inspiration, the queerness to be found in Gotham City and the need for trans characters who are people first and role models second, if at all. Here we move on to discuss different aspects of this very personal film.

Vera’s character, who comes to be known as Joker the Harlequin, finds a friend and a business partner for her comedy club in Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin (played by Nathan Faustyn). We’d been talking about how the Joker has changed over the decades, and I note that the same is true of the Penguin. We’ve seen more sympathetic portrayals of him in recent years.

Though its timing has changed over the years, the Film Independent Spirit Awards still marks the final turn toward the finish line of awards season, putting a spotlight on both the films that are major Oscar contenders, as well as the projects that prove great cinema can be made at the most micro of budgets.

While the show was expansive in terms of what it honored, including the best of television as well, there was a certain throughline in what was recognized at the Independent Spirit Awards this year. Below, IndieWire dives into the true winners of the 2025 Indie Spirits.

“Anora”

We must start by stating the obvious, as the Palme d’Or winning film released by Neon not only won Best Film, but Best Director for Sean Baker, and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison right on the heels of a handful of key awards wins at places like the PGA Awards,...

Film Independent handed out its 2025 Spirit Awards on Saturday afternoon (February 22), in a Santa Monica ceremony that saw Anora claim three prizes for best feature, director Sean Baker, and lead performance Mikey Madison in the gender-neutral category.

Sean Wang’s Didi took two prizes for best first feature and first screenplay, whileGints Zilbalodis’s Latvian animation Flow won international film and No Other Land was named best documentary. A Real Pain also nabbed two awards for screenplay and supporting actor Kieran Culkin.

While it is too late for the Spirit Awards to have any bearing on the Oscars next weekend...

The 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards have wrapped! And now we know, as the full winners list for the Spirit Awards has been revealed, just how much momentum “Anora” has going into the Oscars: a lot. It already got the most Spirits nominations with six, and it ended up winning Best Feature, Best Director for Sean Baker, and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison.

Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Performance for “A Real Pain,” which also won Best Screenplay. “No Other Land” won Best Documentary, and the extraordinary animated film “Flow” won Best International feature.

“Baby Reindeer” collected the most prizes on the TV side with Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series going to Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning won Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series, and Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series went to Nava Rau. “Shogun” won Best New Scripted Series.

Host Aidy Bryant...

The best in independent film and new television shows were honored at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards and we have the full winners list here.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow led the film nominations with five nods each while Shogun led the television nominations with five nods as well.

In the end, Anora and Baby Reindeer led their respective categories with three wins each!

Make sure to check out the recap of every celeb who attended the event and take a look at our Best Dressed list as well.

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down for the full list of winners…

Best Feature

Anora – Winner

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 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards — the top awards event for the independent film and television community — were handed out on Saturday from the beach in Santa Monica, Calif.

The ceremony, hosted by Saturday Night Live vet Aidy Bryant for the second year in the row, was streamed live on the IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels at 5 pm Et, and across other social platforms.

More from TVLineSAG Awards 2025: The Penguin, Shōgun and Only Murders in the Building Among TV WinnersNAACP Image Awards: Quinta Brunson, Jennifer Hudson and Fight Night Win BigWriters Guild Awards 2025: Shōgun, The Penguin and Hacks...

If you couldn’t already tell from her gonzo superhero/villain parody “The People Joker,” Vera Drew is done with tamped down queer narratives made by non-lgbtq+ individuals. And despite the animosity that many in power may hold for trans individuals, based on how the film has connected with audiences across America, it seems the country is more than ready for a change.

On the red carpet at the 40th Film Independent Spirit Awards, Drew expressed her frustrations over depictions of queer life in mainstream media and how she’s not alone in these feelings. In fact, she believes the reason “The People’s Joker” and “Castration Movie” — another trans-led project she co-stars in — have found success is for their diverse, yet authentic portrayals of their community.

“I think queer representation specifically has just gotten so stale,” Drew said. “So much of it is just put together by cis people and corporations.

The 40th annual Independent Spirit Awards took place in Santa Monica on Feb. 22, with Aidy Bryant as host for the second year in a row.

“Anora” was the biggest winner of the day, being named best feature while Sean Baker and Mikey Madison took home individual trophies for best director and lead performance. “Baby Reindeer” also won big, with Richard Gadd, Nava Mau and Jessica Gunning clinching the awards for lead, supporting and breakthrough performance, though “Shogun” won best new scripted series. And Sean Wang’s “Dìdi” clinched both awards in the debut film category: best first feature as well as best first first screenplay.

See the full list of winners below.

Best Feature

“Anora” (Winner)

“I Saw the TV Glow”

“Nickel Boys”

“Sing Sing”

“The Substance”

Best First Feature

“Dìdi” (Winner)

“In the Summers”

“Janet Planet”

“The Piano Lesson”

“Problemista”

John Cassavetes Award – Given to the best feature made...

“Anora” won Best Feature at the the 40th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, which took place on Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica and was hosted for the second year in a row by Aidy Bryant. “Anora’s” Indie Spirit win follows its recent triumphs at the DGA and PGA awards and boosts its chances for Oscar glory next week. “Anora” also won Best Director for Sean Baker and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison. Repeating her victory at the BAFTAs, Madison beat Demi Moore, who had been considered the solid frontrunner.

In many ways, the Indie Spirit Awards followed a pattern it has shown in recent years: Anytime its voters can give a statuette to an Oscar-nominated film or performance, they do. This year’s Spirit nominations included Oscar nominees in seven different categories — and in every one of those categories, the Academy-approved entry won.

Aside from the three big wins for “Anora,...

Film Independent handed out its 2025 Spirit Awards on Saturday afternoon (February 22), in a Santa Monica ceremony that saw Anora claim three prizes for best feature, director Sean Baker, and lead actor Mikey Madison in the gender-neutral category.

Sean Wang’s Didi took two prizes for best first feature and first screenplay, while Gints Zilbalodis’s Latvian animation Flow won international film and No Other Land was named best documentary. A Real Pain also nabbed two awards for screenplay and supporting actor Kieran Culkin.

Baker gave an impassioned speech calling for higher upfront fees for independent directors who he said take...

As we gear up for the big afternoon on the beach this Saturday, now’s a great time to get to know your nominees. Hopefully you’ve seen their films, and if you’re a Film Independent member, watched your screeners and voted too. But there’s nothing quite like hearing about the process from the creative minds themselves.

That’s exactly what we did with this year’s Directors Close-Up, where we brought together the nominees from some of the top filmmaking categories, to talk shop. Over two weeks this February, we held Zoom sessions for our members, where these creators tell how exactly they got their projects off the ground, the creative choices they made, and what inspires them.

If you missed them live, we’ve got you covered. Let’s take a look at all the action from this year’s Directors Close-Up:

Spirit Of...

There’s an old gold vault just outside of Washington, D.C., that holds the kind of (national) treasures most film nerds can only dream of seeing. But when a film screens in the Library of Congress’s theater, the filmmakers can get a tour of the Library’s vault. This is how “Hundreds of Beavers” producer Kurt Ravenwood ended up getting to see one of the original prints of Edwin Stanton Porter’s early silent Western, “The Great Train Robbery.”

Now, director Mike Cheslik’s murder-fueled homage to everything from silent slapstick to Nintendo side-scroller platform games has a film print of its own. As with most things “Hundreds of Beavers” related, what started as a joke among the filmmaking team ended up being followed through on quite seriously.

“We made this film very cheaply and part of the way we made it cheaply was by having the entire workflow be [in] 1080p.

Galeca: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics has announced winners for the 2025 Dorian Awards, and it’s great news for genre fare like The Substance, Wicked, and I Saw the TV Glow.

Mubi’s body-horror movie The Substance won a leading five trophies, including Film of the Year, Demi Moore (Best Lead Performance), and Coralie Fargeat (Best Director), while Universal’s film adaptation of the Wicked musical claimed honors for Ariana Grande (Best Supporting Performance), Cynthia Erivo (Lgbtqia+ Film Trailblazer), and Jonathan Bailey (Rising Star).

Other movies with multiple victories were I Saw the TV Glow (LGBTQ Film of the Year and Jane Schoenbrun for LGBTQ Screenplay of the Year), Will & Harper (Documentary of the Year and LGBTQ Documentary of the Year), and Challengers (Justin Kuritzkes for Screenplay of the Year and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Film Music of the Year).

In addition to her acting triumph, Moore...

The Current Debate connects the dots around a topic of the critical conversation.Fire of Wind.Whenever I try to distill a year of moviegoing memories down to a best-of list, I like to turn to an essay telling me why I shouldn’t. “Lists of films will not save you,” Elena Gorfinkel wrote in an incendiary manifesto published by Another Gaze in 2019; “lists of films will not save films. … Lists do not enshrine your hallowed taste, they only dilute it. Lists are attentional real estate for the fatigued, enervated, click-hungry.” As someone who annually partakes in such an absurd ritual, I don’t look at lists to cross-check the consensus around this or that title, but to see what they might reveal about our relationship with the medium: how we produce, consume, and discuss moving images in a world that’s become increasingly saturated with them. Anyone attempting to...

Exclusive: Sean Baker’s latest Anora has won Best Picture at this year’s Online Film Critics Society Awards. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

Anora also won Best Actress for star Mikey Madison and Best Screenplay while Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance also took home three awards for Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Margaret Qualley alongside a Technical Achievement Award for Makeup/Hairstyling.

Comprised of nearly 300 voting members from around the world, the Online Film Critics Society was founded in 1997. Members include writers from outlets such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Slant, Paste Magazine, AARP, and Sight & Sound.

In addition to the 2024 top film honors, the Online Film Critics Society hands out Special Achievement and Lifetime Achievement Awards. This year the body honors Ava DuVernay with a Special Achievement Award for her “brilliant work and for supporting a new generation of female filmmakers.” This year...

I Saw the TV Glow and The Substance led the way at the Dorian Film Award nominations on Friday. The awards are selected by Galeca — the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics comprises more than 500 critics, journalists, and media figures. Winners will be announced on Feb. 13.

SEE2025 Independent Spirit Awards nominations: Full list led by ‘Anora,’ ‘I Saw the TV Glow’

From director Jane Schoenbrun, A24’s I Saw the TV Glow tells the eerie story of two friends (Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine) whose realities start to collapse around their favorite television series. The movie received a leading nine Dorian nominations including Film of the Year, LGBTQ Film of the Year, and Director of the Year, while both Smith and Lundy-Paine were nominated for their performances. The indie feature, hailed as a groundbreaking trans allegory, has mostly flown under the radar this awards season, though it did score three Gotham...

The votes are in for the 2025 Dorian Awards nominations. Galeca: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics said today that Neon’s Anora, Amazon MGM Studios’ Challengers, A24’s I Saw the TV Glow, Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM’s Nickel Boys and Mubi’s The Substance will battle it out for Film of the Year.

Vying for LGBTQ Film of the Year are Challengers, I Saw the TV Glow, Netflix’s Emilia Peréz and A24’s Love Lies Bleeding and Queer.

Nominees for the all-gender Film Performance of the Year prize are Golden Globe winners Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) and Demi Moore (The Substance) along with Daniel Craig (Queer), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Peréz), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Mikey Madison (Anora) and Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow).

Jane Schoenbrun’s thought-provoking horror tale I Saw the TV Glow leads...

Exclusive: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two leads the nominations at this year’s Online Film Critics Society Awards. Scroll down for the lists in full.

Dune: Part Two clocked nine noms. The haul includes nods in the Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Chasing Villeneuve’s sci-fi sequel is Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (8), Edward Berger’s Conclave (7) and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (7), while Anora, Nickel Boys, and Wicked each earned 6 nominations.

Comprised of nearly 300 voting members from around the world, the Online Film Critics Society was founded in 1997. Check out the nominations below.

Best Picture:

Anora

The Brutalist

Challengers

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

I Saw the TV Glow

Nickel Boys

Nosferatu

The Substance

Wicked

Best Animated Feature:

Flow

Inside Out 2

Memoir of a Snail

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot

Best Directing:

Sean Baker – Anora

Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

Coralie Fargeat – The...

December means another movie year comes to an end. For all the talk of this being a weak one amid the bottleneck of post-strike releases and the halt on production altogether in 2023, 2024 was a rich one for independent and international fare, as well as (in some cases underappreciated) original studio fare. While a Barbenheimer-level multiplex groundswell didn’t quite land with “Gladiator II” and “Wicked” (with “Wicked” certainly taking that title on its own), there was still much to pore over, ponder, enjoy, and shell out for dating back to the beginning of 2024.

George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” didn’t quite hit with audiences (though IndieWire loved it) as stirringly as “Fury Road,” but it’s still one of the year’s best films and one critics continue to champion. Intimately scaled trans stories like “I Saw the TV Glow” and “The People’s Joker” captured cult audiences...

The holidays are officially in full swing and that means a lot of folks are heading into some well-earned time off, and probably some long-overdue catchup on the biggest movies of the year. As we all know in 2024, trying to find out what’s streaming where is half the battle when you’re wondering what to watch.

Whether you’re looking for major box office hits like “Beetlejuice Beeltejuice” and “Inside Out 2” or lesser-known gems like “Thelma” and “The Bikeriders,” there are a ton of 2024 movies that you can watch on streaming over the holiday. Want to caught up with some awards contenders? “Conclave,” “Challengers” and “Emilia Perez” are all streaming now too, among others. Rather catch up on horror? “The Substance” is on Mubi and, naturally, Shudder has you covered with “Oddity,” “In a Violent Nature” and more.

Whatever you’re looking for, here are all the 2024 movies you can stream right now.

The end-of-year cascade of lists, ballots, scorecards, and rankings can mean a lot of the same: It’s all “Anora” this, “Conclave” that. While IndieWire’s own list of the best films of 2024 was crowned by RaMell Ross’s emotional, searching story of Black kids in Jim Crow South, “Nickel Boys,” there are still plenty of indies that didn’t get enough love this year even beyond our top 25.

Still, there’s some overlap in titles across IndieWire’s list of the Best Overlooked Indies of 2024. We picked 27 of them for brevity’s sake, meaning more than a few gems likely got left off, but here’s a good sampling of many of the indies snubbed by critics groups or more mainstream-leaning awards bodies so far this year.

Sure, “His Three Daughters,” Azazel Jacobs’s poignant tale of a dysfunctional trio of sisters staring down their father’s death,...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Is there a worse way to see movies than the obligatory December spent catching up with all the titles you’ve missed? There’s no such thing as a bad year for cinema, and 2024 isn’t any different, but this annual period has only solidified my feeling that my favorite movies of any given year will always be the ones I’ve been given more time to sit with, be it weeks or months, than the countless prestige titles I end up hurrying through as a checklist exercise. It’s not that films from this crop can’t still resonate with me so much as they arrive at a point where the calendar year in cinema has already been defined––even the best last-minute viewings will be unfairly judged,...

Look over the menagerie of LGBT movies and TV shows released in 2024 carefully enough, and you’ll find as many hidden gems as you will worsening cracks. In others words, there’s good news and bad news — but in the year’s overall impressive lineup, also a glimmer of hope.

On the small screen, the seemingly unending aftermath of the streaming bubble burst from 2022 saw the “Cancel Your Gays” trend push forward as LGBT series ended abruptly, and fewer projects were green lit to take their place. Stand-up comedy specials, particularly those at Netflix, continued to platform contradictory political voices with hugely disparate views about human rights — which created some bizarre situations, for good and for bad.

There have been reported declines in onscreen queer representation across film too, albeit not as stark as those impacting actors on television. Still, looking back at a year that included several remarkable success stories from throughout queer cinema,...

Often, the first taste of an upcoming film or television show is by way of its poster. For some films, such as “Jaws” or “The Silence of the Lambs,” a poster can in fact become entwined with its legacy and pave the way for an entire brand to be built. Making a strong first impression with an audience can be tantamount to a project’s success, but how does one capture the essence of an entire story in just one image?

For some, like Nathan Silver’s religious dramedy “Between the Temples,” the key is all in the title. Highlighting the film’s central duo, played by Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, the two posters for the film feature the heads of both stars mirrored against one another. In this simple, yet unique positioning, the offbeat nature of the entire film, as well as the connection between the two main characters is communicated effortlessly,...

Movies continued their difficult post-pandemic recovery in 2024. Hindering that process was a pipeline drastically thinned by the previous year’s protracted writers’ and actors’ strikes; the summer release slate was especially anemic. The outlook got a boost from the bumper crop of early-winter releases led by Wicked, Moana 2 and Gladiator II, but box office nonetheless seems headed for an annual tally well short of 2023 revenues.

Studio animation came back with guns blazing — Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4 and Moana 2 all appear certain to land in the top 5. Among critics’ darlings, Flow and The Wild Robot both looked to the animal kingdom to find hope for a planet falling apart, while the latter also provided a comforting balm for A.I. anxiety. And the artisanal magic of stop-motion animation made a comeback in Memoir of a Snail and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

The success of Deadpool & Wolverine...

Ahead of its 30th anniversary, Slamdance is still making the same first impression.

Shaggy yet shiny, the indie film festival was forged in the shadow of Sundance after its founders were rejected from the prestigious Park City showcase during the mid-nineties. Now, the Slamdance Group aims to be ahead of the game — having already moved from Utah and made its West Coast debut at the Director’s Guild of America on December 9 with the first-ever Indie Awards.

“I don’t feel like it’s being dramatic or over-dramatizing it to say that independent film is at stake,” said Slamdance Festival Director Taylor Miller during her opening remarks. “There is so much going on that this is the best place to be and to have these awards. Los Angeles is where so much is changing week in and week out.”

Also known as The Indies, the event was designed to “not...

Winners to be revealed on Monday, December 16. Here is the full list of nominations. Best Film Anora The Brutalist Challengers Civil War Conclave A Different Man Dune: Part Two His Three Daughters I Saw the TV Glow In a Violent Nature Longlegs Mars Express Nickel Boys Nosferatu The People’s Joker A Real Pain Rebel

The post The Substance Tops Indiana Film Journalists Association Nominations appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.

The inaugural ceremony for the The 2024 Indie Awards was hosted at the Director’s Guild of America in Los Angeles on Dec. 9. This annual event, which was hosted by Nic Novicki and presented by Slamdance Group, honors independent filmmaking.

“’The Indies’ is where distinctly independent US and Indigenous feature filmmakers and their films will be seen, heard, and properly recognized year after year in Hollywood,” said Indie Awards co-founder Paul Rachman. Indie Awards co-founder Ben Umstead added, “Such recognition is a powerful tool for change of the status quo, and embracing change equals the film industry at its best.”

Chloé Leriche won “Best Narrative Feature” and “The Native Viewpoint Award For Outstanding Indigenous Community Story Collaboration” for “Atikamekw Suns” as well as the “Outstanding Storytelling Craft” award alongside Natalie Lamoureux. Also for “Atikamekw Suns,” Giauco Bermudez won the “Outstanding Technical Achievement” honor.

This film is centered around the true story...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association aka Lafca gathered over the weekend to name their award winners for 2024. This year, they chose Palme d’Or winner Anora as Best Picture, with The Brutalist coming in as the runner-up. Anora fared quite well overall with Lafca, also taking home Lead Performance for Mikey Madison and runner-up recognition for Sean Baker’s direction and screenplay.

Check out Lafca’s winners below:

Best Picture: Anora

Runner-Up: The Brutalist

Best Director: Mohammad Rasoulof – The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Runner-Up: Sean Baker – Anora

Best Lead Performance: Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Truths / Mikey Madison – Anora

Runners-Up: Demi Moore – The Substance / Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here

Best Supporting Performance: Yura Borisov – Anora / Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Runners-Up: Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing / Adam Pearson – A Different Man

Best Screenplay: A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg

Runner-Up: Anora – Sean Baker

Best Cinematography: Nickel Boys – Jomo Fray

Runner-Up: The Brutalist – Lol Crawley...

Anora was named best film by Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) as the group announced its winners on Sunday (December 8).

Sean Baker’s madcap Palme d’Or-winning romantic comedy, financed by FilmNation and distributed in the US through Neon, is starting to build up a head of steam in the US awards season.

Mikey Madison tied in the gender-neutral best lead performer category with last week’s New York Film Critics Circlebest actress winner Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Hard Truths. Mike Leigh’s drama is distributed in the US by Bleecker Street.

Yura Borisov was named joint best supporting performer...

The complete list of winners for the 2024 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards held on Sunday (December 8).

The annual event was put on by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, commemorating its 50th anniversary this year, and reveals the association’s selections of the year’s best movie and performances.

This year, both Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg picked up awards for their movie A Real Pain, winning Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

The LA Film Critics Awards can coincide with the Oscars – six past winners have gone on to win the Oscar since 2009.

Keep reading to find out all of the winners…

Check out the full list of 2024 LA Film Critics Awards winners below!

Best picture

Winner: Anora

Runner-up: The Brutalist

Best director

Winner: Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Runner-up: Sean Baker, Anora

Best lead performance

Winners: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths, and Mikey Madison, Anora

Runners-up: Demi Moore,...

Voting kicked off Sunday for the 50th Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) Awards.

After announcing John Carpenter as the recipient of this year’s Career Achievement Award, Lafca members recognized some of the year’s best films and talents during Sunday’s voting ahead of the awards ceremony on Jan. 11, 2025 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Writer/director Sean Baker’s Anora took home Best Picture, also receiving runner-up for Baker in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories. Anora star Mikey Madison won Best Leading Performance, along with Hard Truths‘ Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Her co-star Yura Borisov won Best Supporting Performance, along with A Real Pain‘s Kieran Culkin.

At last year’s Lafca Awards, The Zone of Interest won Best Picture, and runner-up Oppenheimer went on to win Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards.

Founded in 1975, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association is composed of LA-based...

Sean Baker’s raucous film “Anora” has been named the best movie of 2024 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which announced its awards on Sunday. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” took the runner-up spot.

“Anora” took three awards overall, also winning for actors Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov. Baker was also the runner-up in the directing and writing categories, edged out in director by exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and in screenplay by writer-director-actor Jesse Eisenberg for “A Real Pain.”

In the gender-neutral acting categories, the lead awards were swept by women and the supporting awards by men. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Madison won the lead awards for “Hard Truths” and “Anora,” respectively, with Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres the runners-up for “The Substance” and “I’m Still Here.”

Supporting winners were Borisov for “Anora” and Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain,” while...

Anora was named best picture of 2024 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca), which handed out its annual achievement awards Sunday, marking its 50th anniversary of honoring Hollywood talent on both sides of the camera.

The Brutalist was the runner-up.

Anora also scored two acting wins: Best lead performance went to Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths and Mikey Madison for Anora, while best supporting performance went to Yura Borisov for Anora and Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails also were among the ceremony’s winners, taking home best score for Challengers. Mohammad Rasoulof took home best director for The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

The association previously announced science fiction legend John Carpenter as this year’s career achievement award, citing his “ability to spin stylish, prescient, genre-bending features of otherworldly menace and powerful emotion,” as well as the fact...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Sean Baker’s “Anora” its Best Picture for 2024. The critics group also awarded stars Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov with the Best Leading Performance and Best Supporting Performance, respectively. This year, the Lafca decided to spread the wealth and awarded two performers in each category, which remain gender neutral.

The Lafca spread the wealth around, but Baker also received the runner-up prizes for both Best Director and Best Screenplay. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” was named runner-up in the Best Picture category.

With New York kicking off awards season with the Gotham Awards and the NYFCC releasing their winners, the West coast finally jumped into the fray, with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announcing their winners for 2024 on Sunday, December 8.

Lafca previously unveiled that John Carpenter will be receiving the Career Achievement Award during its ceremony on Saturday, January 11, 2025 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles,...

Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in ‘Anora’ (Courtesy of Neon)

Sean Baker’s Anora and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow lead the Film Independent Spirit Awards 2025 film nominees, with Shōgun topping the list of television nominees. On the film side, Anora and I Saw the TV Glow collected six nominations, followed by Didi with four and Janet Planet, The Apprentice, and Sing Sing with three.

Shōgun scored five Spirit Awards TV nominations, with Baby Reindeer and English Teacher earning four nominations each.

“Since we held our first ceremony in 1985 at a restaurant on La Cienega to last year’s show when viewers around the world joined us at the Santa Monica Beach to celebrate the work of so many artists, Film Independent has continued to support independent filmmakers and enable them to achieve their vision at every stage of their career,” stated Josh Welsh,...

This morning saw the announcements of the 40th edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The big picture nominees include titles like the film festival darling The Substance, as well as Anora, which is getting high accolades for Mikey Madison‘s performance and Sean Baker’s writing and direction. A24 would naturally snag a ton of nominations that total a whopping 19. This beats last year’s 11-nomination count.

The Independent Spirit Awards will be taking place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, and is set to be held at Santa Monica beach. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant will return as the host. The in-person ceremony will be available to stream live on IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels, and across other social platforms. You can find the full list of nominations, courtesy of Deadline, below.

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan...

Nominations for the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards are in!

The awards show celebrates films budgeted at less than $30 million to produce and must be considered “independent.” There are also TV categories!

For the films, Anora and I Saw the TV Glow got six nominations each. Shogun got the most TV nominations with five total.

The show will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, with Aidy Bryant hosting.

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down for the full list of nominees…

Best Feature

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

Best First Feature

Dìdi

Director/Producer: Sean Wang

Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters...

Sean Baker’s Anora and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow lead the 2025 Independent Spirit Award nominations with six each.

Both films were nominated in best feature, best director, best lead performance, best supporting performance and the producers award while I Saw The TV Glow also picked up best screenplay.

Sean Wang’s Didilanded four nominations including best first feature and best first screenplay. The Apprentice is up for three awards – best directing, best editing and best lead performance for Sebastian Stan.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Santa Monica on February 22, 2025.

Earlier this week...

Wow… has it really been 40 years? It sure has, and that’s a reason to celebrate! From our first year at a restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. to a worldwide live stream, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have grown a lot.

That first year the awards, then called the Findie (Friends of Independents) Awards, awarded both Marty & Joel Coen the Best Director prize. Since then, we’ve celebrated artists like Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler, Whit Stillman, Robert Rodriguez and Kasi Lemmons, among many, many others. Next month on the blog, we’ll take deep dive into all the history of the awards, so make sure to check back with us to read all about the last 40 years of the Spirit Awards!

This year, we’re headed back to the beach in Santa Monica with returning host and Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant. The show, which will be held at the beach in Santa Monica,...

Nominations have been revealed for the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will take place in Los Angeles on February 22. The film nominations were led by “Anora” and “I Saw the TV Glow” with six each. In the television categories, “Shōgun” garnered the most nominations with five, followed closely by “Baby Reindeer” and “English Teacher” with four apiece. Watch the announcement here and see the full list below.

Julio Torres did well here with four nominations across his feature directorial debut “Problemista” and Max series “Fantasmas.” Indies like “Dídi,” “Janet Planet,” “Sing Sing,” “Ghostlight,” “The People’s Joker,” “In the Summers,” “The Substance,” and “Nickel Boys” also had a good day, racking up multiple nominations across the board. Netflix enjoys multiple nods, for “The Piano Lesson” and “His Three Daughters,” two movies poised to enter into the Oscar race.

The 2024 Spirit Award winners were led by “Past Lives,” “The Holdovers,” and “American Fiction,...

The 40th Annual Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced live on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 7:00am Pacific/10:00am Eastern on Film Independent’s YouTube channel. Scroll down for the full list of contenders, and find out who wins during a ceremony hosted by comedian Aidy Bryant on Feb. 22, 2025.

The Spirit Awards honor the best achievements in low-budget American filmmaking and and now breakthrough TV programs as well, as decided by the members of Film Independent. The nominating committees comprised writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, actors, critics, casting directors, film festival programmers and other working film professionals. Winners are chosen by film industry insiders as well as everyday film lovers who pay their yearly dues to be part of Film Independent. Members have access to Film Independent’s exclusive nominee screening room online, as well as a number of awards season experiences including special screenings and Q&As.

Film Independent...

Nominees for the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards — the premiere awards event for the independent film and television community — were announced on Wednesday morning, and FX’s Shōgun led the TV pack with five total contenders.

It was followed closely by Netflix’s Baby Reindeer and FX’s English Teacher, each of which netted four nods.

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Other TV shows earning...

Awards season is chugging right along. Next up are the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which honor the best and brightest in indie cinema and television. To qualify, a film's budget must not exceed $30 million, which means major blockbusters like Wicked and Gladiator II are, obviously, out of the running.

This year,...

In a refreshing and unpredictable swerve, Aaron Schimberg’s New York theater satire “A Different Man” picked up Best Feature at the 2024 Gotham Awards on Monday night. The Sundance premiere, about a washed-up actor (Sebastian Stan) with neurofibromatosis who undergoes facial reconstruction surgery only to be confronted by his much more confident double (Adam Pearson), shot on the Upper West Side in New York and has been an awards season dark horse with support from critics here.

Stan is also in the Oscar mix for his portrayal of Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” which didn’t place on the Gotham nominations list. Bets were on “Anora” to win the Best Feature prize, so “A Different Man” winning was an unexpected treat.

At the event held at Cipriani on Wall Street, I bumped into Stan and Pearson early in the evening, with Pearson flying in from the U.K. over the...

‘Anora’ y ‘The Brutalist’ se van de vacío. © Getty Pictures

Ya se conocen los ganadores a los Premios Gotham, unos galardones que premian lo mejor del cine independiente estadounidense y que dan el pistoletazo de salida oficial (como cada año) a la temporada de premios.

Este año, la sorpresa la ha dado A Different Man, que se ha hecho con el máximo galardón, el de Mejor Película, imponiéndose a Anora, Babygirl, Challengers y Nickel Boys. La película de Aaron Schimberg protagonizada por Sebastian Stan y Adam Pearson llegará a los cines en España de la mano de Vértigo Films. El filme gana así un importante impulso de cara a la temporada de premios. En los últimos diez años, ocho de las ganadoras de esta categoría en los Gotham fueron nominadas al Oscar a la Mejor Película y cinco de ellas lograron la estatuilla.

Las otras dos grandes triunfadoras de los...