Kristen Stewart has long made artistic risk look easy — delivering the sort of instinctive, full-body creativity many performers spend their entire careers trying to cultivate. But accepting the Maverick Award at the 2025 IndieWire Honors ceremony at Nya West in Los Angeles on Thursday, the actor-turned-filmmaker explained how fearless tenacity fuels that cool intuition.
“Hey, guys, I got some Chapstick. I’m not thirsty. Let’s fucking do this,” Stewart cracked as she took the stage, teeing up an irreverent and at times even electric acceptance speech.
The Maverick Award joins a résumé already stacked with contradictions. From “Twilight” to “Spencer,” Stewart is both a blockbuster icon and an arthouse darling. But this year marks a new chapter for her as a storyteller and industry leader. Stewart’s feature directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water,” premiered at Cannes, where its bright confidence quickly established her as a filmmaker ready to break boundaries.
“Committing to what you want, how you see things, and not what you think other people want to see is not just the only way to transcend mediocrity,” she said. “It rewires the collective psyche. The world opens up when you share your own.”
Developing “The Chronology of Water” for nearly a decade, Stewart was frequently told that adapting Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir was a “bad idea.” She pushed forward and one line from the book (cut from the film because, as Stewart explained, lead actress Imogen Poots already “screams it” in her presence) — became the guiding light of her film. In the book, when Yuknavitch’s father accuses his daughters of being “selfish” for wanting their own lives apart from him, Lidia snaps back, “We wanted selves.”
From there, Stewart vaulted into a blistering meditation on desire, vulnerability, and the bruising expectations placed on people living at the margins of traditional Hollywood narratives. “This sheer cliff of tired and lame expectation that people on the margins face when it comes to considering their own desire, fuck off and fuck you,” she said, earning cheers from the room. “That’s where art comes from. It comes from wanting something.”
Stewart further championed chosen family, instinct, and the courage to create in spite of fear. “Nothing inside you is purely original. No one is that special,” she said. “But by digging into and externalizing your innermost truths, you find your people.”
Stewart closed on a moment of celebration and resilience. “Tonight is the night to be epically thankful and excited,” she said. “Let’s break some stuff. Let’s rebuild it. We can take it.”
The event took place on Thursday, December 4, in Los Angeles with an intimate cocktail reception and awards ceremony. Stay tuned for more exclusive editorial and social content from the night, including video interviews, outtakes, and more.
Watch Stewart’s complete acceptance speech from the winter 2025 IndieWire Honors ceremony above.