SXSW Announces Grand Jury Award Winners

The depths, breadths, and diversity of the South by Southwest filmmaking community was celebrated last night at the Paramount Theatre with the annual Grand Jury Awards - and the announcement of one very special prize before the night began.

As the ceremony kicked off, film festival director Janet Pierson told the packed theatre that Nicolas Cage had received the honorary Film Award for 40 Years of Massive Talent (a nod to his headliner this year, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent). Cage had already been declared the unofficial winner of the popular vote for this year's biggest star of the festival, but now he has something for the award cabinet, too.

However, the show was really about the new talents and burgeoning filmmakers who impressed the jurors. Catfishing comedy I Love My Dad took home the award for narrative feature (read our interview with director James Morosini here), while the redemptive Master of Light took top honors in the documentary feature slot.

However, the most lauded title was What We Leave Behind, Austin-based director Iliana Sosa's loving portrait of her grandfather in his final years. The documentary took home not only the Louis Black "Lone Star" award for best film made in Texas or by a Texan filmmaker, but also the Fandor New Voices award.

Congratulations to all the winners: here's the list in full.

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Feature Jury Awards

Narrative Feature Competition Presented by Panavision

Winner: I Love My Dad (D: James Morosini)
Special Jury Recognition for Extraordinary Cinematic Vision: Cast and crew, It Is in Us All
Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Performance: Elizaveta Yankovskaya, Nika

Documentary Feature Competition Presented by IMAX

Winner: Master of Light (D: Rosa Ruth Boesten)
Special Jury Recognition for Exceptional Intimacy in Storytelling: Bad Axe (D: David Siev)
Special Jury Recognition for Acting in a Documentary: Steve Glew, The Pez Outlaw

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Short Grand Jury Awards Presented by IMDbPro

Short Narrative Film

Winner: "All the Crows in the World" (D: Tang Yi)
Special Jury Recognition for Directing and Community
Filmmaking: "Glitter Ain’t Gold" (D: Christian Nolan Jones)
Special Jury Recognition for Outstanding Performances: Aphrodite Armstrong, ​​Kyle Riggs, "West by God"

Documentary Short Competition

Winner: "Long Line of Ladies" (D: Rayka Zehtabchi, Shaandiin Tome)
Special Jury Recognition for Visual Reflection: "not even for a moment do things stand still" (D: Jamie Meltzer)

Midnight Shorts

Winner: "Moshari" (D: Nuhash Humayun)
Special Jury Recognition for Powerful Short Trip: "Omi" (D: Kelly Fyffe-Marshall)

Animated Shorts

Winner: "Bestia" (D: Hugo Covarrubias)
Special Jury Recognition for Unexpected Emotion: "Les Larmes de la Seine" (D: Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard)
Special Jury Recognition for Visceral Storytelling: "Something in the Garden" (D: Marcos Sánchez)

Music Videos

Winner: Desirée Dawson - "Meet Me at the Light" (D:Alexander Farah)
Special Jury Recognition for Going the Extra Mile: Myd - "Let You Speak" (D: Dan Carr)

Texas Shorts

Winner: "Folk Frontera" (D: Alejandra Vasquez, Sam Osborn)
Special Jury Recognition for Vision: "Birds" (D: Katherine Propper)

Texas High School Shorts

Winner: "Honeybee" (D: Emilio Vazquez Reyes)
Special Jury Recognition for Artistic Expression: "It’s Getting Bad Again" (D: Sarah Reyes)

Episodic Pilot Competition

Winner: Something Undone (D: Nicole Dorsey)
Special Jury Recognition for Unique Vision in Writing and Directing: Pamela Ribon and Sara Gunnarsdóttir, My Year of Dicks

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SXSW Film Design Awards Presented by Adobe

Poster Design Competition

Winner: "More Than I Remember" (Yen Tan, Maya Edelman)
Special Jury Recognition: "The Sentence of Michael Thompson" (Juan Miguel Marin)

Title Design Competition

Winner: Foundation Title Sequence (Ronnie Koff, Imaginary Forces)
Special Jury Recognition: The White Lotus Title Sequence (Katrina Crawford, Mark Bashore, Plains of Yonder)

XR Experience Competition

Winner: "On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)" (D: Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Pierre Zandrowicz, Arnaud Colinart)
Special Jury Recognition for Immersive Storytelling: "(Hi)story of a Painting: The Light in the Shadow" (D: Quentin Darras, Gaëlle Mourre)

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SXSW Special Awards

Fandor New Voices Award

Presented to: What We Leave Behind (D: Iliana Sosa)

Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award

Presented to: Chee$e (D: Damian Marcano)

Adobe Editing Award

Presented to: Everything Everywhere All At Once (Paul Rogers_

Louis Black “Lone Star” Award

Winner: What We Leave Behind (D: Iliana Sosa)

ZEISS Cinematography Award

Winner: A Vanishing Fog (Gio Park)

Mailchimp Support the Shorts Award

Presented to: The Voice Actress (D: Anna J. Takayama)