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 DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT VISIONS MIDNIGHTERS EPISODIC SXGLOBAL FESTIVAL FAVORITES SXSW Film Design Awards EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN 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 Audience Award: Documentary Feature Competition Audience Award: Narrative Spotlight Audience Award: Documentary Spotlight Audience Award: Visions Audience Award: Midnighters Audience Award: Episodic Audience Award: SXGlobal Audience Award: Festival Favorites  Show Comments |
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