Virtual Cinema Jury Award Winners Also Announced

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals today announced the Audience Award winners from the Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Visions, Midnighters, Episodic Premieres, Global, Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. Headliners and 24 Beats Per Second Audience Award winners will be announced on Monday, March 19.  Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter.  Also announced were the 2019 Virtual Cinema Jury Award Winners.

The Audience Awards follow the previously-announced 2019 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Alice for Narrative Feature and For Sama for Documentary Feature. For the complete list of 2019 Award Winners, visit www.sxsw.com/festivals/film-awards/.

Over the course of nine days, the 2019 SXSW Film Festival screened 133 features, consisting of 102 World Premieres, 9 North American Premieres, and 3 US Premieres, with 62 first-time filmmakers. 101 shorts and music videos will screen as part of 12 curated shorts programs, plus two episodic pilot programs. The 256 films were selected from 8,496 overall submissions, including approximately 2,361 features and 4,734 shorts.

 

2019 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Saint Frances

Director: Alex Thompson

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: For Sama
Directors: Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: The Peanut Butter Falcon
Director: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Running With Beto
Director: David Modigliano

VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: The Garden Left Behind
Director: Flavio Alves

MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: Boyz In The Wood
Director: Ninian Doff

EPISODIC PREMIERES
Audience Award Winner: Ramy
Showrunner: Bridget Bedard

GLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: Cachada: The Opportunity
Director: Marlén Viñayo

FESTIVAL FAVORITES

Audience Award Winner: Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins

Director: Janice Engel

SXSW Film Design Awards

EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN

Audience Award Winner: Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse

Directors: Brian Mah, James Ramirez

As today is the final day of the SXSW Film Festival, additional screenings have been scheduled for this evening for all Audience Award winners except Headliners and 24 Beats Per Second:

Audience Award: Documentary Feature Competition
For Sama
3/16/2019, Lamar A, 5:15 PM

Audience Award: Documentary Spotlight
Running With Beto

3/16/2019, Alamo Ritz 1, 4:45 PM

Audience Award: Episodic Premieres

Ramy

3/16/2019, Lamar C, 8:15 PM

Audience Award: Festival Favorites

Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins

3/16/2019, Lamar B, 7:30 PM

Audience Award: Midnighters

Boyz In The Wood

3/16/2019, Alamo Lamar B, 11:00 PM

Audience Award: Narrative Feature Competition
Saint Frances

3/16/2019, Alamo Lamar A, 8:45 PM

Audience Award: Narrative Spotlight

The Peanut Butter Falcon

3/16/2019, Alamo Ritz 1, 1:45 PM

Audience Award: Global

Cachada: The Opportunity

3/16/2019, Alamo Lamar C, 2:30 PM

Audience Award: Visions

The Garden Left Behind

3/16/2019, Alamo Ritz 2, 7:45 PM

VIRTUAL CINEMA JURY AWARD WINNERS

The 25 projects in the Virtual Cinema, which ran Monday 3/11 through Wednesday 3/13, were eligible for 360° Video: Documentary, 360° Video: Narrative, Interactive, Storytelling, Best Use of Immersive Arts, plus special jury awards. The 2019 Virtual Cinema jury was composed of  Eliza McNitt, Laura Mingail, and Lori Schwartz.

360° VIDEO: DOCUMENTARY – Send Me Home
Director: Cassandra Evanisko
Send Me Home is equally an unforgettable journey through the impact of Rickey Jackson’s wrongful incarceration, as it is an exceptionally inspiring experience.

360° VIDEO: NARRATIVE – Metro Veinte: Cita Ciega
Director: Maria Belen Poncio
This story transported us on a journey through laughter and tears. Metro Veinte: Cita Ciega is a touching story about being human. This experience exemplified the use of Virtual Reality in a way that transcended the medium and defined what 360° video is meant to capture. The boundaries of the headset slipped away as we were truly immersed in Juana’s heartwarming and captivating world.

INTERACTIVE – Runnin’
Director: Kiira Benzing

This unity-based project driven by a Reggie Watts soundtrack is a euphoric dance experience that will take the user on a fun and playful journey of music and movement. With the ability to interact, physically, with music in a record store to transporting yourself across a geometric landscape with volumetric dancers is interactive joy at it’s best. The improvisational nature of ’transporting’ with controllers to go anywhere drives the excitement of this experience as well as the artistic rendering of Intel’s ‘voxel’ format.

STORYTELLING – Gloomy Eyes
Director: Jorge Tereso, Fernando Maldonado 

In this experience we stepped off planet Earth and entered the realms of a world steeped in imagination and heart. Gloomy Eyes charmed us with its delightful characters and original story. This magical world pushed the boundaries of Virtual Reality storytelling in its ability to transport our hearts to a world beyond our own. With two more episodes on the horizon, it left us wanting to see more.

BEST USE OF IMMERSIVE ARTS – Home After War
Director: Gayatri Parameswaran 

By combining room scale VR with 360° videos, this ‘4d’ piece, which is focused on the devastating impact of improvised explosive devices in Iraq, allows us to truly ‘live’ the devastation left upon families as they choose to go back home to a booby trapped house. By immersing the viewer in the environment, narrated and guided by a mourning parent who is physically there, talking to us, we become part of the story and are truly impacted by the devastation of war.

SPECIAL JURY RECOGNITION – The Future of Experience
Director: Jessica Brillhart

We chose to offer special recognition to Traverse for its breakthrough ability to augment any space into a live music experience, allowing fans to physically explore and be immersed in the composition of songs, igniting even greater appreciation for each track.