SXSW Audience Awards Give Nod to Musicians
SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards gives nod to musicians. Feature doc, Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free, tops headliner category.
The audience members have spoken.
That’s right, after five days of wall-to-wall screenings, the 2021 SXSW Film Festival is one for the books.
The SXSW jurors have already made their favorites known – and it’s quite an impressive list.
Now, the audience members weigh in. What movies inspired them, made them laugh, or brought them to tears?
Moviegoers were in lockstep with SXSW jurors when it came to picking several top spots. Specifically, both groups honored the same narrative feature, narrative short and episodic pilot as category winners.
2021 was also the year of musicians among audience members. True, SXSW is considered the “live music capital of the world.” But, not this past year. So the nod toward music-related films can be expected, welcomed, and certainly deserved.
Now for the SXSW 2021 Audience Award winners.
2021 SXSW Audience Awards
Headliners
Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free
Director: Mary Wharton
Narrative Feature Competition
The Fallout
Director: Megan Park
Documentary Feature Competition
Not Going Quietly
Director: Nicholas Bruckman
Narrative Spotlight
Language Lessons
Director: Natalie Morales
Documentary Spotlight
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
Directors: Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler
Visions
Inbetween Girl
Director: Mei Makino
Midnighters
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror
Director: Kier-La Janisse
Global
Ninjababy
Director: Yngvild Sve Flikke
24 Beats Per Second
Soy Cubana
Directors: Jeremy Ungar and Ivaylo Getov
Festival Favorites
In The Same Breath
Director: Nanfu Wang
2020 Spotlight
We Are The Thousand
Director: Anita Rivaroli
Narrative Shorts Competition
Play It Safe
Director: Mitch Kalisa
Documentary Shorts Competition
Joe Buffalo
Director: Amar Chebib
Animated Shorts Competition
Opera
Director: Erick Oh
Midnight Shorts Competition
Stuffed
Director: Theo Rhys
Texas Shorts Competition
Learning Tagalog with Kayla
Director: Kayla Abuda Galang
Texas High School Shorts Competition
Beyond the Model
Director: Jessica Lin
Music Videos Competition
Kuricorder Quartet – ‘Southpaw’
Director: Sawako Kabuki
Episodic Premieres
Them
Showrunner: Little Marvin
Episodic Pilot Competition
4 Feet High
Directors: Maria Belen Poncio and Rosario Perazolo Masjoan
Virtual Cinema Competition
Biolum
Director: Abel Kohen
Virtual Cinema Spotlight
Finding Pandora X
Director: Kiira Benzing
Excellence in Title Design
Birds Of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Title Sequence
Creative Director and Illustrator: Michael Riley