BEST FEATURE
Peter Hujar’s Day
The Plague
Sorry, Baby
Train Dreams WINNER
Twinless
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Blue Sun Palace
Dust Bunny
East of Wall
Lurker WINNER
One of Them Days
BEST DIRECTOR
Mary Bronstein (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)
Lloyd Lee Choi (Lucky Lu)
Ira Sachs (Peter Hujar’s Day)
Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby)
Clint Bentley (Train Dreams) WINNER
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Everett Blunck (The Plague)
Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) WINNER
Kathleen Chalfant (Familiar Touch)
Chang Chen (Lucky Lu)
Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams)
Dylan O’Brien (Twinless)
Keke Palmer (One of Them Days)
Théodore Pellerin (Lurker)
Tessa Thompson (Hedda)
Ben Whishaw (Peter Hujar’s Day)
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Naomi Ackie (Sorry, Baby) WINNER
Zoey Deutch (Nouvelle Vague)
Kirsten Dunst (Roofman)
Rebecca Hall (Peter Hujar’s Day)
Nina Hoss (Hedda)
Jane Levy (A Little Prayer)
Archie Madekwe (Lurker)
Kali Reis (Rebuilding)
Jacob Tremblay (Sovereign)
Haipeng Xu (Blue Sun Palace)
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Liz Larsen (The Baltimorons)
Misha Osherovich (She’s the He)
Kayo Martin (The Plague) WINNER
SZA (One of Them Days)
Tabatha Zimiga (East of Wall)
BEST SCREENPLAY
A Little Prayer (Angus MacLachlan)
Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor) WINNER
Sovereign (Christian Swegal)
Splitsville (Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin)
Twinless (James Sweeney)
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang)
Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)
Lurker (Alex Russell) WINNER
One of Them Days (Syreeta Singleton)
Outerlands (Elena Oxman)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blue Sun Palace (Norm Li)
Dust Bunny (Nicole Hirsch Whitaker)
Peter Hujar’s Day (Alex Ashe)
Train Dreams (Adolpho Veloso) WINNER
Warfare (David J. Thompson)
BEST EDITING
Eephus (Carson Lund)
Good Boy (Ben Leonberg)
Splitsville (Sara Shaw)
The Testament of Ann Lee (Sofía Subercaseaux) WINNER
Warfare (Fin Oates)
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
All That’s Left of You (Palestine/Jordan/Germany/Cyprus)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Zambia/UK/Ireland)
A Poet (Colombia)
The Secret Agent (Brazil) WINNER
Sirāt (Spain)
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Come See Me in the Good Light (Ryan White)
Endless Cookie (Peter Scriver & Seth Scriver)
My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev)
The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir) WINNER
The Tale of Silyan (Tamara Kotevska)
TRUER THAN FICTION
André is an Idiot (Tony Benna)
Seeds (Brittany Shyne)
Your Touch Makes Others Invisible (Rajee Samarasinghe) WINNER
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
The Baltimorons
Boys Go to Jupiter
Eephus
Esta Isla (This Island) WINNER
Familiar Touch
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
The Long Walk
PRODUCERS AWARD
Emma Hannaway
Luca Intili
Tony Yang WINNER
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Tatti Ribeiro (Valentina) WINNER
Neo Sora (Happyend)
Annapurna Sriram (Fucktoys)
The 41st Independent Spirit Awards took place at the Hollywood Palladium on February 15, 2026. The Indies were streamed on Film Independent YouTube channels and IMDb.com.
CRAFT D MOVIE CRITIQUES 