Spirit Awards: Film Independent Acting President Brenda Robinson Pays Tribute to Late Josh Welsh
Longtime Film Independent president Josh Welsh was remembered at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday by acting president Brenda Robinson, who delivered a heartfelt speech about the “visionary” who passed away earlier this year.
“Josh is a visionary of the type that comes along once in a lifetime. We want his work and impact to continue on, because he is a great leader,” Robinson said onstage after a standing ovation. “He is a person of exceptional character. I speak about him very deliberately in the present tense, because he is still here. He’s here. We will feel his spirit in the programs he created and the lives of filmmakers who he impacted always, and in all ways. Josh is only absent in the body, but the spirit of who Josh is and what he means to this community, that is forever.”
She continued: “In my final conversation with Josh, just days before the New Year, I told him that I was excited to start the new season and I wanted him to be recognized for the example he had set of what it means to go on a journey and to come out on the other side, and even though he didn’t get to hear it then, it’s not too late for us to still feel that energy now. So thank you for your acknowledgement of him. We want to honor him. We want to honor our commitment to keep him ever present in our aura and so thank you for standing with me one more time. I want to invite you to join me again in a standing ovation for the magnificent Josh Welsh. There can never be too much praise for someone as magnificent as him.”
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The organization announced early January that Welsh died on New Year’s Eve after a five-year battle with colon cancer at 62. He died peacefully at home with his wife and daughter at his side.
Later in the show during his acceptance speech, Anora director Sean Baker also paid tribute to Welsh: “Thank you ,Film Independent, and I know we are all thinking about Josh Welsh tonight, a true champion of independent voices and a wonderful, kind human being. We’ll miss you, Josh. We’ll miss you. Long live independent cinema.”
While working as an actor in Los Angeles, he began volunteering annually at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 1996 before officially joining the staff more than 20 years ago. In his rise to leadership, he first served as a co-president with Sean McManus in 2012 after Dawn Hudson resigned.
Before becoming president, Welsh for more than a decade was responsible for the overall design, strategic planning and implementation of Film Independent’s Artist Development programs, including the Filmmaker Labs for Directors, Screenwriters, Producers and Documentarians; Fast Track; and the Grants Program. He spent four years administering Film Independent’s diversity program, Project Involve, and managed the the Grants Program. Prior to working on the Filmmaker Labs, he was in Film Independent’s programming department.
After McManus stepped down in 2013, Welsh became the president of Film Independent, where he directly oversaw all programs and operations and grew the organization across all metrics including staff, budget, programming slate and membership.
Under his leadership, Welsh helped the organization deepen strategic partnerships with studios, NGOs and governments and increased international reach by partnering with the State Department on the Global Media Makers Program. According to the organization, Welsh expanded its “commitment to promoting diversity in the film industry and amplified Film Independent’s role as an advocate for filmmakers.”
Welsh was also honored at a Film Independent brunch in January.
The Spirit Awards are being handed out Saturday afternoon in Santa Monica. See the red carpet arrivals and the list of winners.
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