Film Awards

The Film Awards honor the superlative creativity and talent demonstrated by filmmakers and designers in the SXSW Film Festival program.

2020 Films

Damien Pechberty and Justin Megherbi at SXSW Film Awards – Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SXSW

About Film Awards

The 2020 SXSW Film program comprised 135 Features, including 99 World Premieres, 9 North American Premieres, 5 U.S. Premieres, and 75 films from first-time filmmakers; 119 Shorts including 22 Music Videos; 12 Episodic Premieres; 7 Special Events; 14 Episodic Pilots in two curated programs; 30 Title Design Entries; and 27 Virtual Cinema Projects.

“When we curated and announced our slate for the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, filled with an array of wonderful films we were excited to share with our unique audience, we had no idea of the unprecedented impact that Coronavirus would have on all our lives,” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film. “Our hearts were broken for all the filmmakers who invested so much time and talent in their work, hoping for a transformative experience at our event. We’re honored to at least be able to present our juried and special awards. We know that it’s no substitute for the actual festival’s vitality, enthusiasm, and potential for surprising outcomes – and that it is only available to a small fraction of our program – but we hope it will help garner some well-deserved recognition for these wonderful works.”

Feature films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature Competition categories. Short films and other Jury sections, including Film Design Awards, were announced along with Special Awards including: Adobe Editing Award, Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award, Final Draft Screenwriters Award, Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, Vimeo Staff Pick Award, and the ZEISS Cinematography Award. Due to the event cancellation, there will be no Audience Awards for 2020.

Learn more about Film Award categories and view the 2020 SXSW Film Award Winners.

SXSW is proud to be an official qualifying festival for the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the Academy Awards® Short Film Awards, and the British Academy Film Awards for British Short Film and British Short Animation. See more information on Awards eligibility.

A special thank you to our incredible partners for the SXSW 2020 Film Awards: Adobe, Audio-Technica, Bat City Awards, Cinema Printing Company London, The Criterion Collection, Final Draft, Hive Lighting, LEE Filters; Light Iron, Mild2Wild Leather, Oscilloscope, Panavision, Vimeo, and ZEISS.

2020 Winners

Feature Film Grand Jury Awards

Narrative Feature Competition

Winner: Shithouse
Director: Cooper Raiff

Special Jury Recognition for Directing: Topside
Directors: Celine Held, Logan George

Special Jury Recognition for Acting: Really Love
Director: Angel Kristi Williams
Actors: Kofi Siriboe, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing

Documentary Feature Competition

Winner: An Elephant in the Room
Director: Katrine Philp

Special Jury Recognition for Achievement in Documentary Storytelling: The Donut King
Director: Alice Gu

Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice: Finding Yingying
Director: Jiayan “Jenny” Shi

Short Film Grand Jury Awards

Narrative Shorts

Winner: White Eye
Director: Tomer Shushan

Special Jury Recognition for Acting: Dirty
Director: Matthew Puccini
Actors: Morgan Sullivan, Manny Dunn

Special Jury Recognition: Darling
Director: Saim Sadiq

Special Jury Recognition: Single
Director: Ashley Eakin

Documentary Shorts

Winner: No Crying at the Dinner Table
Director: Carol Nguyen

Special Jury Recognition: Mizuko
Directors: Katelyn Rebelo, Kira Dane

Special Jury Recognition: Día de la Madre
Directors: Ashley Brandon, Dennis Höhne

Midnight Shorts

Winner: Regret
Director: Santiago Menghini

Special Jury Recognition: Laura Hasn’t Slept
Director: Parker Finn

Special Jury Recognition for Creature Design: Stucco
Directors: Janina Gavankar, Russo Schelling

Animated Shorts

Winner: Symbiosis
Director: Nadja Andrasev

Special Jury Recognition: No, I Don’t Want to Dance!
Director: Andrea Vinciguerra

Special Jury Recognition: The Shawl
Director: Sara Kiener

Music Videos

Winner: 070 Shake – ‘Nice to Have’
Director: Noah Lee

Special Jury Recognition for Animation: Mitski – ‘A Pearl’
Directors: Saad Moosajee, Art Camp

Special Jury Recognition for Direction: The Lumineers – ‘Gloria’
Director: Kevin Phillips

Texas Shorts

Winner: Just Hold On
Directors: Sam Davis, Rayka Zehtabchi

Special Jury Recognition: Coup d’etat Math
Director: Sai Selvarajan

Texas High School Shorts

Winner: Wish Upon a Snowman
Director: Miu Nakata

Special Jury Recognition for Narrative: Ultimatum
Director: Kai Hashimoto

Special Jury Recognition for Documentary: Unveiled
Director: Sofia Bajwa

Special Jury Recognition for Animation: The Orchard
Director: Zeke French

Episodic Pilot Competition

Winner: Embrace
Director: Jessica Sanders

Special Jury Recognition for Drama: Chemo Brain
Director: Kristian Håskjold

Special Jury Recognition for Comedy: Lusty Crest
Director: Kati Skelton

Film Design Awards

Excellence in Poster Design

Winner: Laura Hasn’t Slept
Designer: Olivier Courbet

Special Jury Recognition: The Donut King
Designers: Andrew Hem, Charlie Le

Excellence in Title Design

Winner: See
Designer: Karin Fong

Special Jury Recognition: Why We Hate
Designers: Allison Brownmoore, Anthony Brownmoore

Special Awards

Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award

Winner: In & of Itself
Director: Frank Oz

Adobe Editing Award

Winner: You Cannot Kill David Arquette
Editors: Paul Rogers, Additional Editing by David Darg

Final Draft Screenwriters Award

Winner: Best Summer Ever
Screenwriters: Michael Parks Randa, Will Halby, Terra Mackintosh, Andrew Pilkington, Lauren Smitelli

Louis Black “Lone Star” Award

Winner: Miss Juneteenth
Director: Channing Godfrey Peoples

Special Jury Recognition for Performance: Bull
Director: Annie Silverstein
Actor: Rob Morgan

Special Jury Recognition for Documentary: Boys State
Directors: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

Vimeo Staff Picks Award

Winner: Vert
Director: Kate Cox

ZEISS Cinematography Award

Winner: Echoes of the Invisible
Director: Steve Elkins

2020 SXSW Film Festival Juries

Narrative Feature Competition: Rebecca Keegan, Rodrigo Perez, Kim Yutani

Documentary Feature Competition: Bilge Ebiri, Naomi Fry, Dino Ramos

Narrative Shorts Program: Penelope Bartlett, Monica Castillo, Greta Fuentes

Documentary Shorts: Marjon Javadi, Allison Willmore

Animated Shorts: Katie Krentz, Hana Shimizu, Asalle Tanha

Midnight Shorts: Jonathan Barkan, Derek Kinongo, Brittany Klesic

Music Videos: Jason Baum, Chaka and Qi Dada

Texas Shorts: Denise Hernandez, Jenny Jacobi, Martin C. Jones

Texas High School Shorts: Jonathan Case, Jazmyne Moreno, Barton Weiss

Episodic Pilots: Mitch Hurwitz, Emily Nussbaum, Shelby Stone

Louis Black “Lone Star”: Kathy Blackwell, David Fear, Richard Whittaker

Excellence in Title Design: Ryan Butterworth, Alex Johnson

Excellence in Poster Design: Becky Cloonan, Barak Epstein, Kevin Tong

Film Award Categories

Jury Awards

Feature films screening in the Documentary Feature and Narrative Feature categories are eligible for Jury Awards.

Short films screening in the Animated Shorts, Documentary Shorts, Midnight Shorts, Music Videos, Narrative Shorts, Texas Shorts, and Texas High School Shorts categories are eligible for Jury Awards.

Audience Awards

In addition to Jury Awards, all feature films (excluding Special Events) are eligible for Audience Awards by screening section.

Special Awards

The Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship is a year-long experience that encourages and champions the talent of an emerging documentary editor. Awarded annually, the fellowship was created to honor the memory of gifted editor Karen Schmeer. For 2019 the fellowship was awarded to Victoria Chalk.

Vimeo is excited to announce the second annual Vimeo Staff Pick Award here at SXSW. Short films featured in the Narrative, Documentary, Animation, Midnight, 360/VR, and Texas Shorts competitions are eligible for this award, which includes a $5,000 cash prize and, of course, a Vimeo Staff Pick. The winning film, Milton directed by Tim Wilkime was released on Vimeo on Wednesday, March 13.

For over 100 years, ZEISS has been making lenses for cinematography, to support filmmaking at all levels. The cinematographers of these films have worked extremely hard to bring you the very best imagery in storytelling and it is their vision which gives life to the director’s story, and for that, we say thank you. The 2019 ZEISS Cinematography Award was awarded to Bruno Murtinho for his film Amazonia Groove.

To honor SXSW co-founder/director Louis Black, a jury prize was created in 2011 called the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award. For 2019 it was presented to The River and the Wall directed by Ben Masters, a feature film that world premiered at SXSW that was shot primarily in Texas or directed by a current resident of Texas. (Opt-in Award)

In honor of a filmmaker whose work strives to be wholly its own, without regard for norms or desire to conform. The Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award is presented to a filmmaker from our Visions screening category. For 2019, this award went to Grace Glowicki for Tito.

For 2019 CherryPicks created the First Feature by a Female Team Award to support its mission to shine a spotlight on female voices. We hope to encourage women and audiences alike to create and support the stories women tell. This year’s winner was Josephine Mackerras for her film Alice.

Design Awards

Each year SXSW Film celebrates the collaboration between filmmakers and designers through the SXSW Film Design Awards, which consists of the Excellence in Poster Design Award and Excellence in Title Design Award.

2019 Film Award Photos

2019 Film Award Winners

Alice

Josephine Mackerras, 2019

Exit 12

Mohammad Gorgestani, 2019

Days of the Whale

Catalina Arroyave Restrepo, 2019

Kelly O'Sullivan, and Ramona Edith Williams, and Alex Thompson, winner of the Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice Award

Saint Frances

Alex Thompson , 2019

Yes, God, Yes

Karen Maine, 2019

2019 Winners