The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals announced the Audience Award winners for the 29th SXSW Film Festival recently. The Audience Awards follow the previously-announced 2022 Jury Awards and the 40 Years of Massive Talent Award presented to Nicolas Cage at The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent screening on Saturday night. For the complete list of 2022 Award Winners, visit www.sxsw.com/festivals/film-awards/.
Over the course of nine days, the SXSW Film Festival screened 101 features including 76 World Premieres, 4 International Premieres, 4 North American Premieres, 2 U.S. Premieres, 14 Texas Premieres, plus 111 Short Films including 24 Music Videos, 12 Episodic Premieres, 6 Episodic Pilots, 30 XR Experience projects (formerly Virtual Cinema), and 19 Title Design Competition entries.
Films in the SXSW 2022 lineup screened in the following categories: Headliners; Narrative Feature Competition presented by Panavision; Documentary Feature Competition; Narrative Spotlight; Documentary Spotlight; Visions; Midnighters; Global presented by MUBI; 24 Beats Per Second; and Festival Favorites. The Episodic program consisted of Episodic Premieres and the Episodic Pilot Competition. The SXSW 2022 Shorts Film Program presented by IMDbPro featured seven competitive sections. The XR Experience Competition, Spotlight and Special Events programming were held in person with a selection of works in our XR Experience World in VRChat, presented by Non-Fungible Labs. All Categories with the exception of Special Events were eligible for section-specific Audience Awards.
Select conference sessions and music festival content is available to registrants through April 17 on the SXSW Online Schedule and Connected TV app. A full list of available content can be found here.
2022 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION presented by Panavision
Audience Award Winner: I Love My Dad
Director/Screenwriter: James Morosini, Producers: Bill Stertz, Patton Oswalt, Sean O’Grady, Dane Eckerle, Phil Keefe, Daniel Brandt, Sam Slater
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Bad Axe
Director: David Siev, Producers: Jude Harris, Diane Quon, Katarina Vasquez, David Siev
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Pretty Problems
Director: Kestrin Pantera, Screenwriters: Michael Tennant, Britt Rentschler, Charlotte Ubben, Producers: Katya Alexander, Britt Rentschler, Charlotte Ubben, Michael Tennant
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: We Are Not Ghouls
Director: Chris James Thompson, Producers: Jessica Farrell, Jack Turner, Andrew Swant
HEADLINERS
Audience Award Winner: Atlanta
Director: Hiro Murai, Producers: Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Hiro Murai, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle
VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: Shadow
Director: Bruce Gladwin, Screenwriters: Michael Chan, Mark Deans, Bruce Gladwin, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Sonia Teuben, Producers: Alice Fleming, Meret Hassenen
MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: Bitch Ass
Director: Bill Posley, Screenwriters/Producers: Bill Posley, Jonathan Colomb
GLOBAL presented by Mubi
Audience Award Winner: Without Prescription
Director: Juliana Maite, Screenwriter: Marietere Vélez, Producer: Vilma Liella
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Audience Award Winner: The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile
Director: Kathlyn Horan, Producers: Kathlyn Horan, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Audience Award Winner: The Art of Making It
Director: Kelcey Edwards, Producer: Debi Wisch
Shorts Film Program presented by IMDbPro
NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Aspirational Slut
Director/Screenwriter: Caroline Lindy, Producers: Kate Hamilton, Ellyn Jameson, Maddy Nimoy, Emily Wolfe
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: The Sentence of Michael Thompson
Directors: Kyle Thrash, Haley Elizabeth Anderson, Producers: W. Ian Ross, Kyle Thrash
ANIMATED SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Five Cents
Director/Screenwriter/Producer: Aaron Hughes
MIDNIGHT SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Tank Fairy
Director/Screenwriter: Erich Rettstadt, Producers: Anita Tung, C.K. Hugo Chung
TEXAS SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Act of God
Directors/Screenwriters: Spencer Cook, Parker Smith, Producer: Matthew Harrington
TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Football.
Director: William Herff, Screenwriters/Producers: William Herff, Nicholas Campos, Peyton Randolph
MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Desirée Dawson – ‘Meet You At The Light’
Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Farah
Episodic Program
EPISODIC PREMIERES
Audience Award Winner: 61st Street
Showrunners: Peter Moffat, J. David Shanks, Director: Marta Cunningham, Screenwriter: Peter Moffat, Producers: Annie Rhodes, Frank Baldwin, Allison Davis
EPISODIC PILOT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Brownsville Bred
Showrunner/Director/Screenwriter: Elaine Del Valle, Producers: Adrienne Lovette, Elaine Del Valle, Leslie Cohen, Debbie Esko-Gold, Eddie Frente
XR Experience
XR EXPERIENCE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Gumball Dreams
Director: Deirdre V. Lyons, Screenwriters: Deirdre V. Lyons, Christopher Lane Davis, Producers: Ferryman Collective, Screaming Color
XR EXPERIENCE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: The Choice
Director: Joanne Popinska, Producers: Joanne Popinska, Tom C. Hall
SXSW Film Design Awards (three-way Tie)
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Audience Award Winner (tie): ‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ Title Sequence
Company: CO3/Method Made / Creative Director: John Likens
Audience Award Winner (tie): ‘See’ Season 2 Title Sequence
Company: CO3/Method Made / Creative Director: John Likens
Audience Award Winner (tie): ‘WandaVision’ Main On End Title Sequence
Company: Perception / Creative Director: John LePore
