As SXSW basks in the Oscars afterglow of Everything Everywhere All at Once, which premiered out of competition at the event last year, jury and special awards winners for the 30th edition of the film and TV festival have been announced.
Top honors in the Narrative Feature Competition went to Paris Zarcilla’s horror pic Raging Grace. The film follows Joy, an undocumented Filipino immigrant who is struggling to do the best she can for her daughter Grace when she secures the perfect job: taking care of an extremely wealthy but terminal old man. The new position pays well and guarantees a roof over their heads. But very soon, Joy and Grace start to realize everything is not as it seems. The jury said its “heady blend of horror, history, and midnight humor announces the arrival of an exciting new filmmaking talent” and called Raging Grace, “frank and elusive, a film that subverts expectations on its way to a stirring conclusion.”
In the Documentary Feature Competition, director/screenwriter Ken August Meyer’s Angel Applicant took top honors. The movie is an autobiographical story about illness and an incisive work of art history. The jury said, “Angel Applicant illustrates both Meyer’s and artist Paul Klee’s experiences with scleroderma in intimate, thoughtful, highly considered detail — engrossingly so for a viewer unfamiliar with either the creators or the disease. The result is a yearslong undertaking that is stunning, powerful, and unforgettable.”
Scooping the TV Pilot Competition prize wasGrown, from showrunner/director/screenwriter Jocko Sims. Story is focused on a teenage boy attempting to move forward after losing his father.
Claudette Godfrey, VP, Flm & TV commented, “What an extraordinary week of film and TV premieres here at SXSW, and there is more to come through Saturday. Our theaters have been brimming with enthusiastic audiences celebrating the exceptional and diverse work in our lineup, and we’re so excited to celebrate this year’s jury and special award winners!
“Our hearts are also bursting with joy for Daniels who first brought their work to SXSW 11 years ago and won our Music Video Competition. It’s indescribable that we were also able to celebrate last year’s Opening Night Film Everything Everywhere All at Once and their seven Academy Awards. We know that another SXSW filmmaker in the Paramount Theater tonight will go on to fulfill their own creative dreams and achieve success beyond what they can imagine now!”
SXSW continues through March 19 with Audience Awards still to be determined.
Here are the 2023 Film & TV Awards winners:
Feature Film Grand Jury Awards
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Winner: Raging Grace
Director/Screenwriter: Paris Zarcilla, Producer: Chi Thai
Special Jury Award for Performance: Courtney Eaton (Parachute)
Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Eric Branco, Story Ave
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Winner: Angel Applicant
Director/Screenwriter: Ken August Meyer; Producers: Ken A. Meyer, Jason Roark
Special Jury Award for Innovation in Storytelling: Another Body
Directors: Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn; Producers: Elizabeth Woodward, Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn; Screenwriters: Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn, Isabel Freeman
SHORT FILM GRAND JURY AWARDS
NARRATIVE SHORT COMPETITION
Winner: It Turns Blue
Director/Screenwriter: Shadi Karamroudi; Producers: Shadi Karamroudi, Mehran Noori, Mina Dreki, Theodora Valentis
Special Jury Award: Flores del Otro Patio
Director: Jorge Cadena; Screenwriters: Jorge Cadena, Li Aparicio Candama; Producers: Yan Decoppet, Gabriela Bussmann
DOCUMENTARY SHORT COMPETITION
Winner: Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma)
Director: Sean Wang; Producers: Sean Wang, Sam Davis
Special Jury Award: Suddenly TV
Director/Producer: Roopa Gogineni
MIDNIGHT SHORTS
Winner: The Flute
Director: Nick Roney; Screenwriters: Nick Roney, Ed Leer; Producers: Brendan Garrett, Ryland Burns
Special Jury Award: Pennies from Heaven
Director: Sandy Honig; Screenwriters: Sandy Honig, Annabel Meschke, Sabina Meschke; Producer: Jake Honig
ANIMATED SHORTS
Winner: The Debutante
Director/Screenwriter: Elizabeth Hobbs, Producer: Abigail Addison
Special Jury Award for Animation Directing: Tom CJ Brown, Christopher at Sea
MUSIC VIDEOS
Winner: Amanda Sum – ‘Different Than Before’
Director/Screenwriter: Mayumi Yoshida
Special Jury Award: Residente – ‘This is Not America ft. Ibeyi’
Director: Grégory Ohrel
TEXAS SHORTS
Winner: Breaking Silence
Directors: Amy Bench, Annie Silverstein; Producers: Monique Walton, Amy Bench
Special Jury Award: When You Left Me On That Boulevard
Director/Screenwriter: Kayla Abuda Galang; Producers: Alifya Ali, Kayla Abuda Galang, David Oconer, Udoy Rahim, Samantha Skinner
TV PILOT COMPETITION
Winner: Grown
Showrunner/Director/Screenwriter: Jocko Sims; Producers: Jocko Sims, Christopher Santiago, Chaz Hazlitt, Andrew Zolot
Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance: Josh Fadem, Harbor Island
POSTER DESIGN COMPETITION
Winner: Eyestring
Designer: Javier Devitt
Special Jury Award: Riders on the Storm
Designer: Casey Moore
Directors: Jason Motlagh, Mark Oltmanns
XR EXPERIENCE COMPETITION
Winner: Consensus Gentium
Director/Screenwriter: Karen Palmer; Producers: Tom Millen, Thalia Mavros, Jackson Lapsley Scott, Tuyet Huynh
Special Jury Award: Body of Mine
Director/Producer/Screenwriter: Cameron Kostopoulos
SXSW Special Awards
Janet Pierson Champion Award
Winner: Lizzie Shapiro (Story Ave, Parachute)
Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
Winner: The Lady Bird Diaries
Director: Dawn Porter; Producers: Kim Reynolds, Dawn Porter
Special Jury Award: The Herricanes
Director: Olivia Kuan; Producers: James Lee Hernandez, Brian Lazarte, Lisa France, James Short, Olivia Kuan, Justin Baldoni, Andrew Calof
Thunderbird Rising Award Winner: Paris Zarcilla, Raging Grace
Thunderbird Rising Special Award: Brittany Snow, Parachute
The Hope Award Winner: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Director: Davis Guggenheim; Producers: Davis Guggenheim, Annetta Marion, Jonathan King, Will Cohen
The Hope Special Award: Confessions of a Good Samaritan
Director: Penny Lane, Producer: Gabriel Sedgwick
Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
Presented to: Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Director/Screenwriter: Tomas Gomez Bustillo; Producers: Gewan Brown, Amanda Freedman
ZEISS Cinematography Award
Winner: Fancy Dance
Cinematographer: Carolina Costa, AMC
