Independent Spirit Award for Best Film
Annual US film award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Independent Spirit Award for Best Film (or Best Feature) is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards, presented to recognize the best in independent filmmaking, it was first awarded in 1985 with Martin Scorsese's film After Hours being the first recipient of the award.
| Independent Spirit Award for Best Film | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best Independent Film |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Film Independent |
| First award | 1985 |
| Currently held by | Train Dreams (2025) |
| Website | filmindependent |
Criteria
In order to be considered as an independent film and therefore being eligible to this category, nomination committees base their decision on four criteria, "uniqueness of vision, original, provocative subject matter, percentage of financing from independent sources and economy of means"; the latter refers to a budget ceiling of $22.5 million.[1] In 2022, Film Independent increased the budget cap for eligible films to $30 million to account for the rising cost of production.[2]
In the following lists, the first titles listed are winners. These are also in bold and in blue background; those not in bold are nominees.
Winners and nominees
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Distributors with most wins and nominations (2 or more)
- Columbia/Sony Pictures Classics - 20 (one win)
- Fox Searchlight/Searchlight Pictures - 17 (eight wins)
- A24 - 15 (four wins)
- Universal/Focus Features - 13 (four wins)
- Miramax - 9 (three wins)
- Samuel Goldwyn - 8 (no wins)
- Lionsgate - 8 (two wins)
- Fine Line Features - 7 (two wins)
- October Films - 7 (one win)
- IFC Films - 6 (no wins)
- MGM/United Artists/Amazon - 6 (one win)
- New Line Cinema - 6 (one win)
- Netflix - 6 (two wins)
- Paramount/Paramount Vantage - 5 (one win)
- The Weinstein Company - 4 (two wins)
- Orion Pictures - 4 (one win)
- Warner Bros/Warner Independent Films - 3 (two wins)
- Island Pictures - 3 (one win)
- Neon - 3 (one win)
- Artisan Entertainment - 3 (no wins)
- New Yorker Films - 3 (no wins)
- Bleecker Street - 2 (no wins)
- Mubi - 2 (no wins)