‘Thelma,’ ‘Sugarcane,’ and ‘Alok’ Win Top Prizes at the 2024 Sarasota Film Festival

Following a gala closing night celebration featuring Steve Buscemi and his film “The Listener,” the 2024 Sarasota Film Festival has announced its awards — with several prominent indies taking the top prizes. This 26th edition of the Florida festival celebrating independent film gave the Narrative Feature Jury Prize to Josh Margolin’s Sundance breakout “Thelma,” starring June Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree. “Sugarcane” won the Documentary Feature Jury Prize.

Speaking for the narrative feature jury, filmmaker Alex Hedison, in awarding the prize to “Thelma,” said the group found the movie to celebrate “what Hollywood cinema so infrequently does: age. The extraordinary performances by June Squib and Richard Roundtree are at the center of ‘Thelma,’ surrounded by an excellent supporting cast who serve as a surrogate for the audience in reminding them of the significance of living their best lives with the kind of action and adventure life affords us if we remain open to it — at every age.” The film is set to be released June 21 by Magnolia Pictures.

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Veteran film executive and former president of IMAX Entertainment Megan Colligan, Warner Bros. Pictures PR chief Katie Martin Kelley, and legendary “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” and “Mars Attacks!” production designer Wynn Thomas rounded out the narrative feature jury.

Hedison herself also won an award: The Documentary Short Competition award for her film “Alok,” about LGBT influencer Alok Vaid-Menon, which she had also brought to Sundance earlier this year, along with executive producer Jodie Foster. Hedison spoke at IndieWire’s annual Sundance Chili Party. Her film stands alongside Shawn Butcher’s “Lessons,” which won Sarasota’s Best Narrative Short, while Volker Schlecht’s “The Waiting” won Best International Short.

The Documentary Feature Jury, of which I was a part — alongside producer and Olive Pictures co-founder Wren Arthur, NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans, and DOC NYC artistic director Jaie Laplante — awarded our top prize to “Sugarcane,” which was also in the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance this year. The film, directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is about how the abuse First Nations students at a Catholic-run boarding school in British Columbia suffered has affected their community across generations. In presenting the prize, I said, “The filmmakers do not lose sight of the extraordinary culture of this community and balance major historical truths with profoundly intimate moments.” The film was acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films in February, appeared IndieWire’s critics survey of the best documentaries at Sundance, and seems an obvious awards contender in the year ahead.

The Documentary Feature Jury also gave a Special Mention to Sundance award-winner “Porcelain War,” which still does not yet have distribution. The Sarasota Film Festival is not a sales festival, but it is one of the most crucial post-Sundance stops for films still seeking distribution. The warm audience reception to as-yet undistributed films such as “Porcelain War,” “A House Is Not a Disco,” and Ethan Berger’s fraternity-hazing thriller “The Line” can send a signal to distributors that audiences outside the Sundance, SXSW, or Tribeca crowds actually do await these films. Under the leadership of president Mark Famiglio, one of the greatest advocates for film on the Gulf Coast, the Sarasota Film Festival has also become one of the most curatorially robust festivals in the southeastern U.S. Last year, the narrative jury awarded its top prize to Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children” — a great movie that otherwise struggled to break through, despite having a Venice premiere the year before.

The Sarasota Film Festival also likes to put a spotlight on local talent and filmmakers, however. That’s why “Into the Spotlight: The Jake Ilardi Story,” about 2021 Olympian and skateboarder Ilardi, who grew up nearby, was in the Documentary Feature competition — it ended up winning the Local Audience Award. (Dawn Porter’s Sundance hit, “Luther: Never Too Much,” won the Industry Audience Award.)

Likewise, Sarasota-born “Euphoria” and “Do Revenge” star Austin Abrams won the Rising Star Award at the festival for his startling role in Berger’s “The Line” — many of his friends and family were in attendance at the screening.

This festival has accomplished something unique: It’s achieved both a global and a local focus. Read on for the full list of 2024 Sarasota Film Festival award winners below.

Jury Awards

Narrative Feature Competition Winner
THELMA
Director: Josh Margolin

Documentary Feature Competition Winner
SUGARCANE
Directors: Emily Kassie & Julian Brave NoiseCat

Documentary Feature Jury Special Mention
PORCELAIN WAR
Directors: Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev

Independent Visions Competition Winner
ART THIEF
Director: Arthur Egeli

Narrative Short Competition Winner
LESSONS
Director: Shawn Butcher

Documentary Short Competition Winner
ALOK
Director: Alex Hedison

International Short Competition Winner
THE WAITING
Director: Volker Schlecht

Audience Awards

Local Audience Award Winner
INTO THE SPOTLIGHT: THE JAKE ILARDI STORY
Director: Liam Jordan

Industry Audience Award Winner
LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH
Director: Dawn Porter

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