Jury and Audience Award-winners of the 2012 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival were announced last night at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony, presented by Veam and hosted by comedian and actor Doug Benson. The Awards took place at the Vimeo Theater in Austin, Texas.
Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature Competition categories. Films in these categories, as well as all feature categories, with the exception of Special Events, were also eligible for 2012 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight.
Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal and Festival Favorites Audience Awards will be announced separately on Saturday, March 17, with the Headliner Audience Award to follow on Monday, March 19, 2012. SXSW continues showing films through Saturday, March 17, details can be found here.
SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners in Shorts Filmmaking and winners of SXSW Film Design Awards Presented by iStockphoto, as well as Special Awards, including the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award. New for 2012, Jury Awards will be handed out for Short films in the SXGlobal and Midnight Shorts sections. The 2012 SXSW Film Festival Juries consisted of:
- Narrative Feature Competition: Lisa Hintelmann, J. Hoberman, Jane Schoettle
- Documentary Feature Competition: David Courier, Philipp Engelhorn, Catherine Shoard
- Narrative Shorts: Susan Arosteguy, Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Thuy Tran
- Documentary Shorts: Anna Higgs, Gerald Peary, Basil Tsiokos
- SXGlobal Shorts: Margaret Brown, Chale Nafus, Linda O. Olszewski
- Animated Shorts: Brad Graeber, Brad Phillips, Bryan Pudder
- Midnight Shorts: Nate Bolotin, Tim League, Ti West
- Music Videos: Jim Eno, John T. Kunz, Mark Woollen
- Texas Shorts: Karim Ahmad, Jennifer Cochis, Anderson Le
- Texas High School Shorts: Marcy Garriott, Emily Hagins, Bart Weiss
- Title Sequence Design: Ian Albinson, Jenny Lee, Ben Radatz, Gareth Smith, Kurt Volk
- Poster Design: Craig Crutchfield, Tim League, James Leal-Valias, Charlie Loft, Danny Parker
- Louis Black “Lone Star”: Elizabeth Avellán, Christy Lemire, Ron Mann
The 2012 SXSW Film Festival hosted a total of 132 features, consisting of 74 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 11 U.S. Premieres, with 58 films from first-time directors. 138 shorts will screen as part of 12 overall shorts programs. The nearly 275 films were selected from a record number of overall submissions, over 5,300, comprised of approximately 2,000 features and 3,300 shorts.
The 2012 SXSW Film Festival Award Winners are:
Feature Film Jury Awards
- DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION – Grand Jury Winner: Beware of Mr. Baker – Director: Jay Bulger
- NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION – Grand Jury Winner: Gimme The Loot – Director: Adam Leon
- Special Jury Recognition for Performance: Jamie Chung – Eden, Besedka Johnson – Starlet, Nico Stone – Booster
Feature Film Audience Awards
- DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Winner: Bay of All Saints – Director: Annie Eastman
- NARRATIVE FEATURE – Winner: Eden, Director: Megan Griffiths
Short Film Jury Awards
- NARRATIVE SHORTS – Winner: The Chair – Director: Grainger David
- DOCUMENTARY SHORTS – Winner: CatCam – Director: Seth Keal
- MIDNIGHT SHORTS – Winner: Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Directors: Rebecca Sloan & Joseph Pelling
- SXGLOBAL SHORTS – Winner: The Perfect Fit, Director: Tali Yankelevich
- ANIMATED SHORTS – Winner: (notes on) Biology, Director: Danny Madden
- MUSIC VIDEOS – Winner: Battles, “My Machines” – Director: DANIELS
- TEXAS SHORTS – Winner: Spark, Director: Annie Silverstein
- TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS – Winner: Boom, Director: Daniel Matyas & Brian Broder
SXSW Film Design Awards presented by iStockphoto
- EXCELLENCE IN POSTER DESIGN – Winner: Man & Gun – Designer: Justin Cox
- Special Jury Recognition: Pitch Black Heist, Designer: Andrew Cranston
- Audience Award Winner: The Maker – Designer: Christopher Kezelos
- EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN – Winner: Les Bleus de Ramville, Designer: Jay Bond, Oily Film Company Inc.
- Special Jury Recognition: X-Men: First Class, Designer: Simon Clowes, Prologue Films
- Audience Award Winner: Bunraku – Designer: Guilherme Marcondes, Hornet Inc.
SXSW Special Awards
- SXSW WHOLPHIN AWARD – Winner: The Black Balloon, Director: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
- SXSW CHICKEN & EGG EMERGENT NARRATIVE WOMAN DIRECTOR AWARD – Winners: Megan Griffiths for Eden and Amy Seimetz for Sun Don’t Shine
- LOUIS BLACK “LONE STAR” AWARD – Winner: Bernie, Director: Richard Linklater
- Special Jury Recognition: Trash Dance, Director: Andrew Garrison
- KAREN SCHMEER FILM EDITING FELLOWSHIP – Presented to: Lindsay Utz
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
