Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal's Girls Will Be Girls wins big at Independent Spirit Awards 2025, All We Imagine as Light loses

The John Cassavetes Award is given to the best feature made for under $1 million. The other films nominated in the category include Big Boys and Jazzy.

Girls Will Be Girls, directed by Shuchi Talati, won the John Cassavetes Award at the 40th Independent Spirit Awards. Anora emerged as the winner of the Best Feature award. The nominations in this category were-- I Saw the TV Glow, Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, and The Substance. (Also Read | Girls Will Be Girls director Shuchi Talati wanted to tell story of first romance, desire minus judgement, slut-shaming)

Still from Girls Will Be Girls (L) and All We Imagine as Light.

Girls Will Be Girls wins at Independent Spirit Awards

The John Cassavetes Award is given to the best feature made for under $1 million. The other films nominated in the category were Big Boys, Ghostlight, Jazzy, and The People’s Joker.

Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal's debut film production also earned a nomination for Best Supporting Performance for Kani Kusruti. She was nominated alongside Yura Borisov and Karren Karagulian for Anora, Joan Chen (Dìdi), Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson), Carol Kane (Between the Temples), Brigette Lundy-Paine (I Saw the TV Glow), Clarence Divine Eye Maclin (Sing Sing), and Adam Pearson (A Different Man). Kieran Culkin won it for A Real Pain.

About Girls Will Be Girls

Girls Will Be Girls revolves around a 16-year-old girl Mira (Preeti Panigrahi), whose rebellious awakening is intertwined with her mother's (Kani) unfulfilled coming-of-age experiences. Girls Will Be Girls had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where it received two awards in August and multiple awards at MAMI recently. It premiered on Prime Video on December 18.

All We Imagine As Light loses

Payal Kapadia's critically acclaimed movie All We Imagine As Light lost in the Best International Film category. It was nominated alongside Black Dog, Flow, Green Border and Hard Truths. Flow emerged as the winner. All We Imagine As Light revolves around two Malayali nurses in Mumbai and their friendships. The Malayalam-Hindi film created history by becoming the first from India to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes in May last year.

Check the full list here:

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Dìdi

BEST DIRECTOR: Sean Baker — Anora

BEST SCREENPLAY: Jesse Eisenberg — A Real Pain

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY: Sean Wang — Dìdi

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A FILM: Mikey Madison — Anora

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A FILM: Maisy Stella — My Old Ass

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jomo Fray — Nickel Boys

BEST EDITING: Hansjörg Weissbrich — September 5

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast: His Three Daughters

BEST DOCUMENTARY: No Other Land

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM: Flow

PRODUCERS AWARD: Sarah Winshall — I Saw the TV Glow

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD: Sarah Friedland — Familiar Touch

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD: Rachel Elizabeth Seed — A Photographic Memory

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES: Hollywood Black

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES: Shōgun

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES: Richard Gadd — Baby Reindeer

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES: Nava Mau — Baby Reindeer

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES: Jessica Gunning — Baby Reindeer

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES: How to Die Alone