ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY The Film Independent Spirit Awards returned with their 40th ceremony on Saturday, with Anora, its star Mikey Madison, and director Sean Baker dominating the film category awards. Baby Reindeer led in the TV acting category winners, though Shōgun took the New Scripted Series award.

Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant hosted the awards show, which honors independent and low-budget film projects and television. The ceremony took place in Santa Monica and streamed live on Film Independent’s YouTube channel and X (formerly Twitter) feed.

The Indie Spirits are a distinct organization in the awards season landscape because they’re specifically designed to focus on smaller film productions — to qualify for the awards, the maximum budget a movie can have is $28 million (though there’s no budget cap on the TV side — the shows just have to be new this year).

As a result, the Indie Spirits only sometimes overlap with the Oscars — smaller-budget films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nomadland, and Moonlight have all found major success with both awards bodies, whereas movies like Past Lives have triumphed at the Spirits in years when higher-budget productions like Oppenheimer win big at the Academy Awards.

Another key distinction that sets the Indie Spirits apart from other awards shows: all acting categories at the Indie Spirits are gender-neutral, so there are fewer categories overall for both film and TV: Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, and Best Breakthrough Performance for both mediums, plus a Best Ensemble Cast on the TV side.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow dominated the film category nominations with five each, with Anora winning three awards overall. Shōgun led the TV field, with five nominations, though it won only one award for Best New Scripted Series. Projects like Dìdi, Baby Reindeer, and English Teacher all received four nominations each, with Didi winning in two categories and Baby Reindeer winning three. The Apprentice, Janet Planet, Sing Sing, and Agatha All Along all garnered three nominations apiece, but saw no awards between them.

Robert Altman Award
WINNER: 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., and Jay O. Sanders

The Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award is presented to the ensemble cast, director and casting director of a film by the Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It is named after director, screenwriter, and producer Robert Altman, who is considered a “maverick” in naturalistic films.