Bob Geldof honoured, Sally Rooney and Caleb Femi among major winners at Sky Arts Awards
Poetry, politics, punk and powerful storytelling recognised in this year’s artist-led celebration of UK and Irish creativity
The 2025 Sky Arts Awards brought together some of the most influential and uncompromising voices in UK and Irish arts this week, celebrating work that reflects, confronts and redefines the cultural moment. From protest music to grief literature, emerging poetry to political theatre, this year’s winners offered a snapshot of where creativity is — and where it’s going.
At the heart of the ceremony, hosted by Bill Bailey at London’s Roundhouse, was a firm focus on artists, not platforms. The winners represent the full breadth of the creative industries — not by genre, but by impact.
Sally Rooney took home the Literature Award for Intermezzo, a spare, devastating exploration of grief and artistic paralysis. Her win affirms her place as a voice that captures the complexities of contemporary life with clarity, subtlety and emotional precision.
Photos courtesy of The Sky Arts Awards
In the Poetry category, Caleb Femi was recognised for The Wickedest — a powerful, often celebratory collection that centres Black British experience, vulnerability, and resistance. Combining lyricism with photography and oral history, Femi’s work challenges traditional poetic forms while widening the frame of who poetry is for.
The Times Breakthrough Award went to rising actor Owen Cooper for his performance in Adolescence, a drama that captured headlines earlier this year for its unflinching look at youth violence, trauma and responsibility. The show also picked up the Television Award, marking it as one of the year’s most talked-about cultural flashpoints.
The Sky Arts Awards include an Arts Hero Award, honouring the less visible figures supporting the arts from the ground up. This year’s recipient, Diane Carroll, has worked behind the ticket desk at Glasgow’s Òran Mór for over 600 lunchtime plays in its A Play, A Pie and A Pint series. Known to regulars by name, she’s part of the fabric of local arts and community life — and her win highlights the quiet infrastructure that makes creative work happen.
The trophies themselves were designed by last year’s Visual Art winner Lindsey Mendick, who reimagined the traditional award icon as a hand-crafted sculpture reflecting her ceramic-based practice.
Full List of 2025 Winners
- Theatre: The Children’s Inquiry – LUNG
- Dance: Figures in Extinction – Nederlands Dans Theatre & Complicité
- Television: Adolescence
- Opera: Simon Boccanegra – Opera North
- Classical Music: Bold Tendencies
- Comedy: Horses – Elf Lyons
- Film: Conclave – dir. Edward Berger
- Visual Art: Being Here – Barbara Walker
- Poetry: The Wickedest – Caleb Femi
- Literature: Intermezzo – Sally Rooney
- Popular Music: This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway – Lola Young
- Arts Hero: Diane Carroll
- Breakthrough: Owen Cooper (Adolescence)
- Lifetime Achievement: Bob Geldof
Elena Leo is the Arts & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.