The 36th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival announced its juried award winners for their 2025 program in a press release on Sunday.
This year’s festival screened 165 films from over 71 countries, including 68 premieres held from January 2-13, 2025. The lineup included 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar® submissions along with Talking Pictures, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, True Stories, World Cinema Now and more.
On January 9th, the festival made an early announcement regarding three jury winners from the categories: Desert Views, Young Cineastes and Bridging the Boards.
List of the 2025 Award Winners:
FIPRESCI Prize
A special jury of international film critics reviewed 35 of the official submissions for the Academy Awards® International Feature Film category that were selected to screen at this year’s Festival. Canadian Film Critic Brian D. Johnson, Brazilian Film Critic Marcelo Janot and Italian Film Critic Paola Caseslla served as FIPRESCI jury members.
FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film: I’m Still Here (Brazil), Directed by Walter Salles
Jury Statement: “To I’m Still Here, for conveying the horror of encroaching dictatorship from the intimate perspective of a mother defending not just her family of five, but her dignity. Evoking the severity of the violence without resorting to melodrama, director Walter Salles captures a critical moment of history in scrupulous and compelling detail.”
FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Screenplay: Vermiglio (Italy), Directed by Maura Delpero
Jury Statement: “To writer-director Maura Delpero, for subverting the conventions of a wartime drama within the framework of an elegant period piece — and letting the story unfold through the eyes of complicated female characters.”
FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actress in an International Feature Film: Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez (France), Directed by Jacques Audiard
Jury Statement: “To Zoe Saldaña, for the ferocity and complexity of her performance in Emilia Pérez, which shows a virtuosic range of expression, from song and dance to her potent interpretation of a morally shaded character. Although her character plays a supporting role, she drives the narrative with the power of a protagonist.”
FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor in an International Feature Film: Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Provái – Kneecap (Ireland), Directed by Rich Peppiatt
Jury Statement: “To Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Provái, for their seamless performance as an ensemble of musicians who make their acting debut in Kneecap. Proving equally authentic and explosive in both capacities, they bring a fresh and propulsive energy to the whole notion of cultural identity.”
BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD
The Documentary Award is presented to the director for the most compelling non-fiction filmmaking from among those selected to screen at the festival. Dale Cohen (UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic), Matthew Carey (Deadline), and Tishon Pugh (New Orleans Film Society) served as judges.
Best Documentary Award: No Other Land (Palestine), Directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor
Best Documentary Award Special Mention: Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story (Ireland/United Kingdom), Directed by Sinéad O’Shea
Jury Statement: “For its compelling immersion into the lives of Palestinian villagers in the West Bank who face the constant threat of expulsion from their homes by the Israel Defense Forces and attacks by Israeli settlers, we award the Best Documentary Award to No Other Land. This film foregrounds the bond between two filmmakers – one Palestinian, the other Israeli – without sentimentalizing the relationship, but emphasizing the different rules that apply to Israelis who live under civil law and Palestinians governed by Israeli military justice. We complement festival programmers on an extraordinary selection of documentaries in competition and award a Special Mention to Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story, which reveals the creative genius and exceptional life force of the great Irish writer.
NEW VOICES NEW VISIONS AWARD
The New Voices New Visions Award focuses on films that the festival programming team felt represent the most distinctive new directors who have emerged in the last year. Beth Barett (Seattle International Film Festival), Gil Robertson (African American Film Critics Association), and Justine Barda (Telescope Film) served as judges.
New Voices New Visions Award: The New Year That Never Came (Romania), Directed by Bogdan Mureșanu
New Voices New Visions Special Mention: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (South Africa), Directed by Embeth Davidtz
Jury Statement: “The director of our winning film lives up to the promise he showed in 2019 when his short The Christmas Gift won ShortFests’ Best of the Festival Award. We appreciated the way that he incorporates a myriad of storylines, bringing them to a triumphant conclusion set to Ravel’s Bolero. We especially admired his use of dark comedy to explore the impact on individual citizens of the Ceausescu dictatorship and its fall. We’d also like to give a Special Mention to Lexi Ventor for her stunning portrayal of Bobo in Don’t Let’s Go the Dogs Tonight. Her presence and emotional intelligence offer a child’s eye view of the experience Zimbabwe faced as it entered its period of decolonization.”
IBERO-AMERICAN AWARD
The Ibero-American Award is presented to the best film from Latin America, Spain or Portugal selected to screen at the festival. The award aims to highlight the creativity seen in modern Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American films. Anna Marie De La Fuente (Variety), Chloë Roddick (Morelia International Film Festival), and Danny Hastings (Official Latino Film Festival) served as judges.
Ibero-American Award: Sujo (Mexico), Directed by Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez
Ibero-American Special Mention: Manas (Brazil/Portugal), Directed by Marianna Brennand
Jury Statement: “We have unanimously selected Sujo for its elegant, nuanced portrayal of a young boy struggling to escape overwhelming violence and poverty in a small Mexican town. The film is meticulously paced and darkly poetic, offering its protagonist an unusually optimistic and humane ending to his story. Featuring outstanding performances from its young cast and beautiful, ethereal cinematography, Sujo cements filmmaker duo Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s rising-star status in the contemporary Mexican cinema scene.”
The Palm Springs International ShortFest is scheduled to return June 24-30, 2025.
