Film Independent Head on How the Spirit Awards Will Honor Late President Josh Welsh, Highlight Industry-Lifting Initiatives
variety.comGregg Goldstein 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.
Read more on variety.com
