SIFF 2025 Award Winners

The audience votes are in and the juries have deliberated! Your SIFF 2025 award winners are here.

This year, we screened 245 films across the 11-day Festival, and those features and shorts competed in juried and audience competitions for prestige and cash prizes. On May 25, we announced the winners of the Juried Competition and Golden Space Needle Audience Awards at a ceremony and banquet held at Tagney Jones Hall. Congratulations to all the award-winning filmmakers, and thank you to this year’s jurors and audience for an amazing Festival! Here’s a recap of who won what.

Golden Space Needle Audience Awards

SIFF is proud to be known as an Audience Festival, so each year we collect votes from our audiences so that they can make their voices heard by awarding their favorite films Golden Space Needle Awards.

Best Film - Tinā | dir. Miki Magasiva (Maori) (Aotearoa New Zealand)

Best Documentary - Come See Me in the Good Light | dir. Ryan White (USA)

Best Director - James Sweeney, Twinless (USA)

Best Performance* - Abou Sangaré, Souleymane’s Story (France)

Best Short Film - Five Star | dir. Kai Hasson (USA)

Lena Sharpe Award For Persistence Of Vision, presented By Women In Film Seattle - The Librarians | dir. Kim A. Snyder (USA)

*Very Special Mention for Indy the dog in Good Boy (USA)

Juried Competition Awards – Features

The Jury, comprised of filmmakers, journalists, and industry professionals, selects a winning film for each category. Winning features are awarded a cash prize of $5,000 each.

Official Competition Grand Jury Prize – Seeds | dir. Brittany Shyne (USA)

Official Competition Special Jury Mention – The New Year that Never Came | dir. Bogdan Mureșanu (Romania/Serbia)

Ibero-American Competition Grand Jury Prize – Deaf | dir. Eva Libertad (Spain)

Ibero-American Competition Special Jury Mention – Transfers | dir. Nicolás Gil Lavedra (Argentina/Uruguay)

Ibero-American Competition Special Jury Mention - The Nature of Invisible Things | dir. Rafaela Camelo

New Directors Competition Grand Jury Prize – The Crowd | dir. Sahand Kabiri (Iran)

New Directors Competition Special Jury Mention – DJ Ahmet | dir. Georgi M. Unkovski (North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Serbia/Croatia)

New American Cinema Competition Grand Jury Prize – Invention | dir. Courtney Stephens (USA)

Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize – Suburban Fury | dir. Robinson Devor (USA)

Documentary Competition Special Jury Mention – Billy | dir. Lawrence Côté-Collins (Canada (Québec)/Finland)

Wavemaker Award: Best FutureWave Feature – Summer’s Camera | dir. Divine Sung (South Korea)

Juried Competition Awards – Shorts

The Jury, comprised of filmmakers, journalists, and industry professionals, selects a winning film for each category. Winning shorts are awarded a cash prize of $2,500 each.

Live Action Short Grand Jury Prize – Medusa | dir. Sarah Meyohas (USA)

Live Action Short Special Jury Mention – Majonezë | dir. Giulia Grandinetti (Italy)

Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize – Rat Rod | dir. Jared Jakins, Carly Jakins (USA)

Documentary Short Special Jury Mention – Style: A Seattle Basketball Story | dir. Bryan Tucker (USA)

Animated Short Grand Jury Prize – The Eating of an Orange | dir. May Kindred-Boothby (United Kingdom)

Animated Short Special Jury Mention – View From the Floor | dir. Megan Griffiths & Mindie Lind (USA)