Best wishes to whichever journalist next attempts to ask “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker the now dead-tired Marvel question. No, after winning four Oscars (a new record for any filmmaker for a single film) for his latest indie effort, Baker will not be pursuing a new career in blockbuster filmmaking, and thank goodness for that. Just one week before his massive Oscars sweep, the self-professed “indie film lifer” took to the stage at the Independent Spirit Awards to accept his Best Director win, using his platform to call out the inequity he sees in the industry he loves so well and make his allegiances known. “I know that there are other indie film lifers in this room, those who don’t see indie films as calling cards, those who don’t make these
Tag Archives: IndieFilm
Feb
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
Sean Baker is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. For the last two decades, Baker has worked on the fringes of American cinema, sticking to his independent roots, but as his star rises to new heights with his Oscar frontrunner “Anora,” the writer/director is using his platform to call out the inequity he sees within the film industry and how it keeps creatives from achieving financial security. Upon accepting the award for Best Director at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards, after offering his thanks to everyone who made “Anora” possible, Baker dedicated a chunk of his speech to acknowledging the struggle indie film is currently facing. Baker explained that he thinks it will only get better when those who control the financing system offer
Feb
As indie filmmakers from around the globe converge on California for the 40th Independent Spirit Awards, IndieWire — the voice of creative independence — is preparing for a groundbreaking day on the arrivals carpet in Santa Monica. The celebration from Film Independent will air at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 22, but while fans wait for festivities to begin, they can meet IndieWire on the red (technically blue at the Spirits) carpet for informed interviews with many of the event‘s top honorees. Yes, for the first time in our nearly 30-year history, IndieWire is hosting a pre-show! We’ll talk with many of the presenters, nominees, and other artists making fearless magic at this critical time for storytelling, while we blaze a trail of our own. Powered by LiveU technology, our show
Feb
On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age. In February 2025, we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with three weeks of Romantic Midnight Trysts. First, read the BAIT: a weird and wonderful pick from any time in film. Then, try the BITE: a behind-the-scenes breakdown of the project’s ending, impact, and any other spoilers you’d want. The Bait: The Pizza Guy Doesn’t Get to Just Decide What Pizza Is Worth In a time when not every midnight movie passes the political sniff test, “Make Me a Pizza” earns five-star reviews from all the right customers. Filmmaker Talia Levin’s cult-hit short film has been described as a “Marxist pizza porno” by its mostly LA-based creative team — who in turn call themselves “an artistic collective of hot queer dorks.”