The 2014 SXSW Film Festival comes to a close today and just a few days after the awards presentation of their jury prizes, they’ve announced this year’s Audience Awards, selected by those who attended screenings in the festival’s 10 venues across the Austin, Texas area.
Shawn Christensen’s Before I Disappear, expanded from his Oscar-winning short “Curfew,” won the Audience Award in the Narrative Feature Competition, while Diana Whitten’s Vessel won the same award in the Documentary Feature Competition. The jury gave their awards in those respective categories to Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers Fort Tilden and Margaret Brown’s documentary The Great Invisible. This was a departure from last year when both the jury and audience awards went to Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12.
The soon-to-be released Cesar Chavez, starring Michael Peña and directed by Diego Luna, won the Audience Award in the Narrative Spotlight before its release by Pantelion Films on March 28. Ben Knight and Travis Rummel’s DamNation won the Audience Award in the Documentary Spotlight while Eduardo Sanchez’s Exists as SXSW audiences’ favorite movie in the Midnighters series.
You can read the official press release and the full list of winners, including some of the more esoteric categories, below. If you’re in the Austin area, you can catch all of the winners at special screenings over the course of the day, also listed below:
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced Audience Award-winners today from the Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Visions, Midnighters, Episodic, SXGlobal, Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. The 24 Beats Per Second category will be announced via sxsw.com on Monday, March 17 due to first screenings still remaining for later today. Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter.
The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2014 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers Fort Tilden for Narrative Feature, and Margaret Browns The Great Invisible for Documentary Feature. For the complete list of 2014 Award Winners, visit sxsw.com/film.
Over the course of nine days, the 2014 SXSW Film Festival will host a total of 133 features, consisting of 89 World Premieres, 11 North American Premieres and 8 U.S. Premieres, with 70 first-time directors. 113 shorts will screen as part of 11 overall shorts programs. The 246 films were selected from a record number of overall submissions, nearly 6,500, comprised of approximately 2,200 features and 4,300 shorts, with an overall increase of 14% over 2013.
2014 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Before I Disappear
Director: Shawn Christensen
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Vessel
Director: Diana Whitten
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: DamNation
Director: Ben Knight & Travis Rummel
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: CESAR CHAVEZ
Directors: Diego Luna
VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: Yakona
Director: Anlo Sepulveda & Paul Collins
MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: Exists
Director: Eduardo Sánchez
EPISODIC
Audience Award Winner: Silicon Valley
Director: Mike Judge
SXGLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: The Special Need
Directors: Carlo Zoratti
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Audience Award Winner: The Case Against 8
Director: Ben Cotner & Ryan White
SXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: Big Significant Things
Designer: Corey Holmes
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: True Detective
Designer: Patrick Clair for Elastic
As today is the final day of SXSW Film, additional screenings have been scheduled for this evening for all Audience Award-winners:
Audience Award: Narrative Feature Competition
Before I Disappear
03/15/2014, Stateside Theatre, 6:30 PM
Audience Award: Documentary Feature Competition
Vessel
03/15/2014, Stateside Theatre, 9:15 PM
Audience Award: Narrative Spotlight
CESAR CHAVEZ
03/15/2014, Topfer Theatre at ZACH, 9:30 PM
Audience Award: Documentary Spotlight
DamNation
03/15/2014, Topfer Theatre at ZACH, 7:00 PM
Audience Award: Visions
Yakona
03/15/2014, Alamo Ritz 1 & 2, 9:30 PM
Audience Award: Midnighters
Exists
03/15/2014, Alamo Ritz 1 & 2, Midnight
Audience Award: Episodic
Silicon Valley
03/15/2014, Vimeo Theater, 7:00 PM
Audience Award: SXGlobal
The Special Need
03/15/2014, Alamo Ritz 2, 7:00 PM
Audience Award: Festival Favorites
The Case Against 8
03/15/2014, Vimeo Theater, 9:30 PM
