By Mark Saldana
Source: SXSW
After nine days of movies, the 2017 SXSW film festival has come to an end. For the most part, my festival went well. I was able to see twenty-one films and participate in five interviews with some of the films’s available talent. Since 1994, the SXSW film festival and conference has offered a rich variety of films and programming in the form of narrative and documentary features and shorts, music videos, and various pilots of television series. The entire event has grown exponentially ever since. 2017 marks the twenty-third year for the event and was the eighth time I attended. The line-up this year offered a wonderful assortment of headliners, narrative features and documentaries.
On Tuesday, March 14, the film Jury announced their selections for this year’s awards. On Saturday, March 18, the last day of the film festival, SXSW announced the winners of the audience awards. The audience awards get determined following all screenings, as audiences submit ballots rating the films they saw. Of course, this film critic has his own opinion and will certainly offer his preferences. Before I list the winners of awards in both categories and offer my own favorites, I have to applaud the programmers and people in charge of this awesome celebration of film and entertainment. Without the hard work of these fine people, as well as the other employees and volunteers, this event would be a horrendous mess. These wonderful folks will keep me returning every year as long as I can muster the energy to keep up with fast pace and massiveness of it all.
Here are the Jury and Audience Awards, followed by my top ten list of films from SXSW Film 2017.
The 2017 SXSW Film Festival Awards:
Feature Film Grand Jury Awards
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Winner: Most Beautiful Island
Director: Ana Asensio
Actor: James Freedson-Jackson
Special Jury Recognition for Best Ensemble: A Bad Idea Gone Wrong
Cast: Matt Jones, Eleanore Pienta, Will Rogers, Jonny Mars, Sam Eidson, Jennymarie Jemison
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Winner: The Work
Directors: Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous
Special Jury Recognition for Excellence in Observational Cinema: Maineland
Director: Miao Wang
Special Jury Recognition for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling: I Am Another You
Director: Nanfu Wang
Short Film Grand Jury Awards
NARRATIVE SHORTS
Winner: Forever Now
Director: Kristian Håskjold
Special Jury Recognition for Acting: DeKalb Elementary
Actor: Tarra Riggs
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Winner: Little Potato
Director: Wes Hurley & Nathan M. Miller
MIDNIGHT SHORTS
Winner: The Suplex Duplex Complex
Director: Todd Rohal
ANIMATED SHORTS
Winner: Wednesday with Goddard
Directors: Nicolas Menard
Special Jury Recognition: Pussy
Director: Renata Gasiorowska
MUSIC VIDEOS
Winner: Leon Bridges – ‘RIVER’
Director: Miles Jay
Special Jury Recognition: Tame Impala – ‘The Less I Know The Better’
Director: CANADA
TEXAS SHORTS
Winner: The Rabbit Hunt
Director: Patrick Bresnan
TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS
Winner: Better Late Than Never
Director: Atheena Frizzell
Special Jury Recognition: Darcy’s Quinceañera
Director: Sam Cooper
SXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN
Winner: Fry Day
Designer: Caspar Newbolt
Special Jury Recognition: Like Me
Designer: Jeremy Enecio
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Winner: Into The Current
Directors: Chris R. Moberg and Jared Young
SXSW Special Awards
SXSW LUNA® Gamechanger Award – Narrative
SXSW LUNA® Chicken & Egg Award – Documentary
LUNA, creators of the first nutrition bar for women, has championed female filmmakers for more than 16 years. In collaboration with Gamechanger Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures, LUNA is honored to offer two $15,000 artist awards and mentoring to help support female filmmakers hone their craft in the fiction and documentary categories, seek new and exciting opportunities, and navigate the changing media landscape. (Opt-in Award)
SXSW LUNA® Gamechanger Award – Narrative
Winner: INFLAME
Director: Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik
SXSW LUNA® Chicken & Egg Award – Documentary
Winner: I Am Another You
Director: Nanfu Wang
SXSW Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
To honor SXSW co-founder/director Louis Black, a jury prize was created in 2011 called the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, to be awarded to a Texas film in content, filmmaker residency, or primary shooting location. (Opt-in Award)
Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
Winner: Mr. Roosevelt
Director: Noël Wells
SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
In honor of a filmmaker whose work strives to be wholly its own, without regard for norms or desire to conform. The Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award is presented to a filmmaker from our Visions screening category.
SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
Presented to: Assholes directed by Peter Vack
SXSW Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship Presentation
The Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship is a year-long experience that encourages and champions the talent of an emerging documentary editor. Awarded annually, the fellowship was created to honor the memory of gifted editor Karen Schmeer.
Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship
Presented to: Leigh Johnson
2017 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: The Light of the Moon
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Dealt
Director: Luke Korem
HEADLINERS
Audience Award Winner: Baby Driver
Director: Edgar Wright
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Mr. Roosevelt
Director: Noël Wells
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot
VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: Becoming Bond
Director: Josh Greenbaum
MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: 68 Kill
Director: Trent Haaga
EPISODIC
Audience Award Winner: Dear White People
Director: Justin Simien
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Audience Award Winner: May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers
Directors: Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio
GLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: Divine Divas
Director: Leandra Leal
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Audience Award Winner: The Big Sick
Director: Michael Showalter
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: Into The Current
Directors: Chris R. Moberg and Jared Young
Virtual Cinema Grand Jury Awards
VIRTUAL REALITY: ROOM-SCALE
Winner: After Solitary
Directors: Cassandra Herrman, Lauren Mucciolo
Special Jury Recognition for Innovative Use of Virtual Reality Technology in the Field of Health: Reinvent
Directors: Ian Forester, Sook-lei Liew, PhD
Winner: Behind the Fence
Directors: Lindsay Branham, Jonathan Olinger
Directors: Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël
Mark’s SXSW 2017 Top Ten
- Inheritance
- The Light of the Moon
- The Disaster Artist
- Colossal
- This is Your Death
- Small Town Crime
- Song to Song
- Signature Move
- The Most Hated Woman in America
- Person to Person
Honorable Mentions: Mr. Roosevelt, The Big Sick, 68 Kill