The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) announced the award-winning films with Out of Plain Sight directed by Daniel Straub, Rosanna Xia winning the Audience Choice Award.
Other awards went to O Horizon directed by Madeleine Rotzler for Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema, Yen and Ai-Lee directed by Tom Shu-yu Lin won The Jeffrey C. Barbakow Award for Best International Feature Film, Roads of Fire directed by Nathaniel Lezra won The Best Documentary Award and Glimmers directed by Pilar Palomero won The Nueva Vision Award for Spain/Latin America Cinema.
Academy Award qualifying short film awards went to The Three Sisters directed by Timur Kognov for The Best Documentary Short Film Award, The Green Buffalo directed by Joel Caldwell won Best Documentary Short Film Award and Bitter Chocolate directed by Sahar Sotoodeh won Best Live-Action Short Film Award. All three of these short award recipients are now eligible for the 2026 Academy Awards.
“It’s an undeniable pleasure to celebrate such a diverse and wonderful array of winning films,” said Claudia Puig, SBIFF Director of Programming. ” We have been so excited to showcase storytelling from 60 countries around the world in our slate of 185 films at SBIFF. The jury winners this year hail from Cyprus, Spain, Germany, Iran, Taiwan, and the US and exemplify the best of creative independent filmmaking, covering subjects ranging from immigration, pay equity. environmental dangers, unwanted pregnancy, neuroscience and hempcrete construction. Congratulations to all the winning filmmakers, and a big thank you to our dedicated jurors.”
Full list of winners of 2025 Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Audience Choice Award
OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT directed by Daniel Straub, Rosanna Xia
Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema
O HORIZON directed by Madeleine Rotzler
The Jeffrey C. Barbakow Award for Best International Feature Film
YEN AND AI-LEE directed by Tom Shu-yu Lin
The Best Documentary Award
ROADS OF FIRE directed by Nathaniel Lezra
The Nueva Vision Award for Spain/Latin America Cinema
GLIMMERS directed by Pilar Palomero
The Best Animated Short Film Award
THE THREE SISTERS directed by Timur Kognov
The Best Documentary Short Film Award
THE GREEN BUFFALO directed by Joel Caldwell
The Best Live-Action Short Film Award
BITTER CHOCOLATE directed by Sahar Sotoodeh
The Social Justice Award sponsored by the Fund for Santa Barbara
SEPARATED directed by Errol Morris
The ADL Stand Up Award sponsored by the ADL
LILLY directed by Rachel Feldman
The ASC Award for Cinematography sponsored by The American Society of Cinematographers
COLOR BOOK directed by David Fortune