Gold Derby Film Awards 2025 big winners include ‘I’m Still Here,’ ‘Wicked,’ ‘The Substance’
More than 10,600 registered Gold Derby users voted for the 2025 Gold Derby Film Award winners — an all-time record — and they picked Brazil’s political biopic I’m Still Here as Best Picture. That makes it just the second non-English-language film to take top honors, following South Korea’s Parasite, which prevailed five years ago. Scroll down for our list of winners in all 22 categories and to watch many individual acceptance speech videos.
I’m Still Here defeated an eclectic group of rivals for Best Picture, including fellow international films All We Imagine as Light and Emilia Pérez, big-budget blockbusters Dune: Part Two and Wicked, indie comedy Anora, epic immigration tale The Brutalist, tennis love triangle Challengers, papal thriller Conclave, and body-horror satire The Substance. The victory was so decisive, in fact, that I’m Still Here won all four of the awards it was nominated for, also claiming Best Actress (Fernanda Torres), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best International Feature.
But another film actually claimed more awards: Wicked. The fantasy musical, based on the long-running Broadway show, came in with a leading 11 nominations and left with five prizes. It collected Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande, winning both here and at the Gold Derby Music Awards this season), Best Ensemble Cast, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Sound.
It was also a good day for Coralie Fargeat. The Substance prevailed four times out of nine nominations, and three of those awards went to the French filmmaker herself: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. The audacious film also won Best Makeup and Hair. Fargeat is the fourth woman to win Best Director at the Gold Derby Awards, after Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), and Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog).
Two other films won multiple awards. Denis Villeneuve‘s sci-fi saga Dune: Part Two tied Wicked with 11 total nominations, and it brought home the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. And eight-time nominee Challengers won the two music categories it was shockingly snubbed in at the Oscars: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “Compress/Repress.” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed both, so they’re double winners. Director Luca Guadagnino cowrote the song, so his efforts paid off as well this year.
Conclave prevailed once, Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes over Oscar favorite Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), while A Real Pain secured Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin, who has swept through the awards season thus far. Elsewhere, Flow overtook The Wild Robot for Best Animated Feature and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story edged out No Other Land for Best Documentary Feature. While Anora was shut out of its seven nominations, its leading lady Mikey Madison was honored as Best Breakthrough Performer.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Black Box Diaries — Shiori Itô, Hanna Aqvilin, Eric Nyari
Dahomey — Mati Diop, Judith Lou Lévy, Eve Robin
No Other Land — Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
[Winner] Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story — Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui, Lizzie Gillett, Robert Ford
Will and Harper — Josh Greenbaum, Rafael Marmor, Chris Leggett, Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum
