Film Independent Head on How the Spirit Awards Will Honor Late President Josh Welsh, Highlight Industry-Lifting Initiatives

It’s only February, but 2025 has already been quite a year for the Spirit Awards. The nonprofit organization that runs it, Film Independent (FIND), is celebrating the ceremony’s 40th anniversary just weeks after devastating Los Angeles fires, the Dec. 31 passing of its longtime president Josh Welsh after his five-year battle with colon cancer, and the Feb. 5 appointment of Brenda Robinson as his acting replacement and Eric d’Arbeloff as acting board chair.

“It felt like a double punch: starting off the year with the loss of Josh, and then days later being focused on making sure that our employees were safe,” says Robinson, who estimates that more than 20% of staffers were affected by the Los Angeles fires. Bottled water and KN95 masks left over from the pandemic were distributed to them in FIND’s lobby after stores ran out of them. Considering indie film’s continuing box office slump on top of the struggles of the impacted filmmakers, the Spirit Awards are taking on even greater importance as the org’s biggest annual fundraiser.

Related Stories

VIP+

NFL’s Streaming Future Could Be Set by End of 2025

Janelle Monáe to Play Tanya Smith, Con Artist Behind $40 Million Heist, in 'Never Saw Me Coming' Movie Adaptation

The ceremony is being held Saturday, Feb.22 at 2pm PT at the beach in Santa Monica, and will stream live on IMDb and Film Independent’s YouTube channels. Robinson says, “We’re thinking creatively about how we will honor Josh in the most magnificent way, at an event that highlights a lot of the impact that he had as a leader. We will have a moment in the show where we’ll acknowledge his work and his impact.” The show’s executive producer, Shawn Davis, is also working with her to create a memorable 40th anniversary tribute that will honor the Spirit Awards’ history and impact.

While the usual comedic tone of the Spirits might seem to be at odds with recent events, returning host Aidy Bryant says it’s just what the audience needs. “This has been a brutal year for so many people, so I really hope to give them a bit of fun and a chance to just laugh,” she explains. “I think working at ‘Saturday Night Live’ is great prep for finding comedy, even in really difficult times, so I’ve seen how powerful finding joy in difficult moments can be.”

Just don’t expect Bryant to tone things down after her satirically over-the-top “roasting” of 2024 nominees like Natalie Portman. “The main lesson I learned was that people love being called ‘a stupid bitch,’” she jokes. “We have some fun bits planned, and we’d like to do a bit of audience participation like we did last year,” including foils among such nominees as Demi Moore (“The Substance”), Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”) and Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”).

Robinson says she hopes FIND and the next president can cultivate more corporate sponsors, strategic partnerships and members in cities like New York, Chicago, Miami, Paris and London, raising its current 8,000-plus member count to 10,000 in the next five years and potentially doubling the number in the future. “We give out grant funding at the nominees brunch, and one of our aspirations is to secure more funding to give direct, unrestricted grants to filmmakers by partnering with other organizations,” she says.

Although Welsh is gone now, his work on the Spirits during most of last year will be felt by anyone who tunes in to watch. “We are there to recognize and highlight talent, so he wanted to make sure that the tone of the show reflected that mission,” Robinson says. “He was very brave going through this battle and really tried to push through, never missed a day of work and was very engaged all the way up until days before [he passed]. He still came to events and made himself accessible as a leader, which we don’t take for granted.”