Raging Grace directed by Paris Zarcilla is the winner of the Grand Jury Award in the Narrative Feature Competition at the 30th SXSW Film & TV Festival. The jury commented, “The story of a Filipina house cleaner and her young daughter confronting Britain’s racial and class divides, Raging Grace is both frank and elusive, a film that subverts expectations on its way to a stirring conclusion.”
The Grand Jury Award in the Documentary Feature Competition went to Angel Applicant directed by Ken August Meyer. “Written, directed, edited, and narrated by Kenneth August Meyer, Angel Applicant is a revelation. It is a film that lives dual lives: a gripping, autobiographical story about illness and an incisive work of art history.”
The Awards follow the 2022 Opening Night Film Everything Everywhere All At Once winning seven Oscar Awards on Sunday, including Best Picture.
“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!” said Claudette Godfrey, VP, Flm & TV.
The SXSW 2023 Film & TV Festival Awards:
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
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
Lizzie Shapiro is a producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She most recently produced Story Ave and Parachute in the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Previous credits include then feature films Shiva Baby (SXSW, TIFF) and Mickey and the Bear (SXSW, Cannes) that both premiered to critical acclaim and were distributed by Utopia Films. She has also produced several short films that have premiered at film festivals worldwide. Lizzie has participated in the Film Independent Producer’s Lab and IFP Week: No Borders. She is a founding member of the film collective Thick Media.
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
Thunderbird Rising Award Winner: Paris Zarcilla, Raging Grace
Thunderbird Rising Special Award: Brittany Snow, Parachute
The Hope Award
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
Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
Presented to: Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Director/Screenwriter: Tomas Gomez Bustillo, Producers: Gewan Brown, Amanda Freedman
ZEISS Cinematography Award
ZEISS Cinematography Award
Winner: Fancy Dance
Cinematographer: Carolina Costa, AMC