The Secret Agent Seeks Justice at 23rd ICS Awards
Honoring films shown worldwide in 2025.
In as close to a sweep as contrarian ICS voters are ever likely to come, we bestowed 6 major awards this year on the eccentric Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent. Writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho‘s tale of fascism and woe under the 1977 military dictatorship won best picture, director, ensemble cast, original screenplay, and two acting prizes. Wagner Moura was named best lead actor for his soulful portrayal of a researcher hunted down by the elite and their brutal hirelings, while 79-year-old Tânia Maria took home supporting actress honors over a field of younger contenders.
Old women indeed reigned supreme at ICS, as octogenarian Kathleen Chalfant in Familiar Touch won our lead actress award, bringing stubbornness and poignancy to the role of a dementia patient who wants to cook for everybody at the ‘geriatric country club’ where she’s reluctantly trying to fit in, while really just wanting to go home again. Pedro Pinho’s anti-colonial epic I Only Rest in the Storm mounted a surprising last-minute surge, gaining the runner-up positions in picture, supporting actress and ensemble, while Jonathan Guilherme charmed our socks off to earn the top supporting actor prize. His performance as a gay Brazilian expat navigating the complex prejudices of neocolonial Guinea-Bissau is a stunner. Best adapted screenplay went to Harry Lighton for Pillion, a BDSM ‘dom com’ based on the novel Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones. Plus in a delightful first, father and son Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) and Alexander Skarsgård (Pillion) got to share runner-up honors for supporting actor. Why choose, when you can have both Skarsgårds?
Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling was runner-up in best director and sound design, while taking top honors for its brilliant editing by Evelyn Rack and Billie Mind. Placing emotional truth over chronology, this innovative crew wove together a haunting tale of sensory memories shared among four generations of young women growing up in an old German farmhouse. Two wins for score and sound design went to Oliver Laxe’s existential road trip Sirāt, with Kangding Ray‘s pulsing electronic rave music and Laia Casanovas‘ desert soundscape combining to propel the characters on their devastating journey across the minefield that spans heaven and hell. Bi Gan ensnared us in another long take with the dreamy visual styles of Resurrection, which captured two awards, for Dong Jingsong‘s breathtaking cinematography and for the incredible production design by Liu Qiang and Tu Nan, featuring everything from an ornate opium den to a snow-capped temple.
Gabriel Azorin‘s imaginative film about young soldiers bonding in the Roman baths, Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes, battled hard to conquer two categories, debut film and breakthrough performance (a quietly nuanced Santiago Mateus), but it wasn’t a clean victory. It ended up tied with A Useful Ghost, the Thai dark comedy debut of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, which also garnered a runner-up mention for him in original screenplay.
Arco, directed by Ugo Bienvenu and Gilles Cazaux, won the animated film award for its time-travel adventure about a boy who rides in on a rainbow cape from the distant future, only to discover that climate change is rapidly wrecking our 21st-century world. Finally, the powerful and sobering recipient of our documentary award, With Hasan in Gaza, was made from footage taken by director Kamal Aljafari almost 25 years ago, showing that the tragic situation of the Palestinian people has not changed, nor is it likely to, given current policies in the US and Israel.
The full list of ICS winners and nominees appears below.
PICTURE
01. The Secret Agent
02. I Only Rest in the Storm
03. Sound of Falling
04. Sirāt
05. Dreams (Sex Love)
06. Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes
07. Dry Leaf
08. One Battle After Another
09. The Mastermind
10. Resurrection
11. Strange River
12. It Was Just an Accident
13. Hamnet
14. Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due
15. Weapons
16. Sinners
17. Sentimental Value
18. Nouvelle Vague
19. Marty Supreme
20. Twinless
DIRECTOR
Winner: Kleber Mendonça Filho – The Secret Agent
RU: Mascha Schilinski – Sound of Falling
• Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
• Dag Johan Haugerud – Dreams (Sex Love)
• Alexandre Koberidze – Dry Leaf
• Oliver Laxe – Sirāt
• Kelly Reichardt – The Mastermind
ACTOR
Winner: Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent
RU: Ben Whishaw – Peter Hujar’s Day
• Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
• Sope Dirisu – My Father’s Shadow
• Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
• Dylan O’Brien – Twinless
ACTRESS
Winner: Kathleen Chalfant – Familiar Touch
RU: Ella Øverbye – Dreams (Sex Love)
• Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
• Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
• Jennifer Lawrence – Die My Love
• Tessa Thompson – Hedda
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Jonathan Guilherme – I Only Rest in the Storm
RU: Alexander Skarsgård – Pillion
RU: Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value
• Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
• Salim Kechiouche – Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due
• Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Tânia Maria – The Secret Agent
RU: Cleo Diára – I Only Rest in the Storm
• Nina Hoss – Hedda
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
• Amy Madigan – Weapons
• Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
ENSEMBLE
Winner: The Secret Agent
RU: I Only Rest in the Storm
• It Was Just an Accident
• Marty Supreme
• One Battle After Another
• Sentimental Value
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho
RU: A Useful Ghost – Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
• Dreams (Sex Love) – Dag Johan Haugerud
• Marty Supreme – Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
• Sentimental Value – Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
• Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Pillion – Harry Lighton
RU: One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
• Bugonia – Will Tracy
• Hamnet – Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell
• No Other Choice – Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Jahye Lee
• Pin de Fartie – Luciana Acuña, Mariano Llinás, Alejo Moguillansky
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: Resurrection – Dong Jingsong
RU: Magellan – Lav Diaz, Artur Tort
• Dry Leaf – Alexandre Koberidze
• One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman
• The Secret Agent – Evgenia Alexandrova
• Sound of Falling – Fabian Gamper
EDITING
Winner: Sound of Falling – Evelyn Rack, Billie Mind
RU: The Secret Agent – Matheus Farias, Eduardo Serrano
• A House of Dynamite – Kirk Baxter
• Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
• One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
• Sirāt – Cristóbal Fernández
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Winner: Resurrection – Liu Qiang, Tu Nan
RU: The Phoenician Scheme – Adam Stockhausen
• Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell
• Marty Supreme – Jack Fisk
• The Secret Agent – Thales Junqueira
• Sound of Falling – Cosima Vellenzer
SCORE
Winner: Sirāt – Kangding Ray
RU: Dry Leaf – Giorgi Koberidze
• Marty Supreme – Daniel Lopatin
• The Mastermind – Rob Mazurek
• One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
• Resurrection – M83
SOUND DESIGN
Winner: Sirāt – Laia Casanovas
RU: Sound of Falling – Billie Mind, Jürgen Schulz
• Die My Love – Tim Burns, Paul Davies
• One Battle After Another – Christopher Scarabosio
• Reflection in a Dead Diamond – Daniel Bruylandt
• The Secret Agent – Tijn Hazen
ANIMATED FILM
Winner: Arco – Ugo Bienvenu, Gilles Cazaux
RU: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Liane-Cho Han, Maïlys Vallade
• Boys Go to Jupiter – Julian Glander
• KPop Demon Hunters – Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang
• Lesbian Space Princess – Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
• Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush, Byron Howard
DOCUMENTARY
Winner: With Hasan in Gaza – Kamal Aljafari
RU: Fiume o morte! – Igor Bezinovic
• Cover-Up – Mark Obenhaus, Laura Poitras
• Memory – Vladlena Sandu
• The Perfect Neighbor – Geeta Gandbhir
• Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk – Sepideh Farsi
DEBUT FILM
Winner: Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes – Gabriel Azorín
Winner: A Useful Ghost – Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
RU: Strange River – Jaume Claret Muxart
• Blue Heron – Sophy Romvari
• Familiar Touch – Sarah Friedland
• Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Winner: Santiago Mateus – Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes
RU: Jessica Pennington – Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due
RU: Ubeimar Ríos – A Poet
• Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
• Guillaume Marbeck – Nouvelle Vague
• Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby