Baby Driver , Mr. Roosevelt top SXSW audience award winners
Out of the 130 feature and 128 shorts screened over the course of nine days at the SXSW, here are the films audiences are raving about.
Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, Jessica M. Thompson’s The Light of the Moon, Luke Korem’s Dealt, and Noël Wells’ Mr. Roosevelt are among the audience award winners from the film festival in Austin, Tex. The full list — including narratives, documentaries, and episodic categories — was revealed on Saturday, after the 2017 jury prizes were announced on Tuesday.
Baby Driver, Wright’s action film choreographed to the soundtrack of the titular getaway driver played by Ansel Elgort, received an uproarious applause after its world premiere. “When I started actually writing it I had ideas for set pieces,” the writer-director of the Cornetto trilogy told the audience, “so just through listening to my record collection I would visualize themes and then when I wrote the rest of the script I wouldn’t write the scene until I found the right track.”
Wells also spoke with EW of her directorial debut, about a struggling comedian who returns home after a family member falls ill. “The comedy movies that I really love all resonate with people on a human level, and the intent at the end of the day is I hope people will connect [with this movie],” she said.
And it looks like people did.
Another winner was The Big Sick, directed by Michael Showalter. The film was purchased by Amazon for a brow-raising $12 million out of the Sundance Film Festival.
See the full list of audience award winners below.
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: The Light of the Moon
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Dealt
Director: Luke Korem
HEADLINERS
Audience Award Winner: Baby Driver
Director: Edgar Wright
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Mr. Roosevelt
Director: Noël Wells
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot
VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: Becoming Bond
Director: Josh Greenbaum
MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: 68 Kill
Director: Trent Haaga
EPISODIC
Audience Award Winner: Dear White People
Director: Justin Simien
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Audience Award Winner: May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers
Directors: Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio
GLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: Divine Divas
Director: Leandra Leal
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Audience Award Winner: The Big Sick
Director: Michael Showalter
SXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: Into The Current
Directors: Chris R. Moberg and Jared Young
Virtual Cinema Grand Jury Awards
VIRTUAL REALITY: ROOM-SCALE
Winner: After Solitary
Directors: Cassandra Herrman, Lauren Mucciolo
Special Jury Recognition for Innovative Use of Virtual Reality Technology in the Field of Health: Reinvent
Directors: Ian Forester, Sook-lei Liew, PhD
360° VIDEO
Winner: Behind the Fence
Directors: Lindsay Branham, Jonathan Olinger
Special Jury Recognition for Technical Excellence: Dreams of “O”
Directors: Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël
