Natalie Morales is the audience’s choice…
SXSW Film Festival organizers have revealed this year’s Audience Award winners, with the 36-year-old Cuban American actress among the list of honorees for her feature directorial debut.
Morales’ Language Lessons, which she co-wrote, stars in and directed, was named the Audience Award winner in the Narrative Spotlight category.
The film, which also stars Mark Duplass and Desean Terry, centers on a Spanish teacher awho develops an unexpected friendship with her student.
Latina filmmakers Maria Belen Poncio and Rosario Perazolo Masjoan won the Audience Award in the Episodic Pilot competition for 4 Feet High.
Over the course of five days of SXSW Online, the SXSW Film Festival screened 75 features including 57 world premieres, three international premieres, four North American Premieres, one U.S. premiere and 53 films from first-time filmmakers, plus 84 short films.
Here’s the full list of SXSW Film Festival Audience Award winners:
HEADLINERS
Audience Award Winner: Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free
Director: Mary Wharton
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: The Fallout
Director: Megan Park
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Not Going Quietly
Director: Nicholas Bruckman
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Language Lessons
Director: Natalie Morales
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
Directors: Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler
VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: Inbetween Girl
Director: Mei Makino
MIDNIGHTERS
Audience Award Winner: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror
Director: Kier-La Janisse
GLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: Ninjababy
Director: Yngvild Sve Flikke
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Audience Award Winner: Soy Cubana
Directors: Jeremy Ungar, Ivaylo Getov
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Audience Award Winner: In The Same Breath
Director: Nanfu Wang
2020 SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: We Are The Thousand
Director: Anita Rivaroli
Shorts
NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Play It Safe
Director: Mitch Kalisa
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Joe Buffalo
Director: Amar Chebib
ANIMATED SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Opera
Director: Erick Oh
MIDNIGHT SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Stuffed
Director: Theo Rhys
TEXAS SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Learning Tagalog with Kayla
Director: Kayla Abuda Galang
TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Beyond the Model
Director: Jessica Lin
MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Kuricorder Quartet – ‘Southpaw’
Director: Sawako Kabuki
Episodic Program
EPISODIC PREMIERES
Audience Award Winner: Them
Showrunner: Little Marvin
EPISODIC PILOT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: 4 Feet High
Directors: Maria Belen Poncio, Rosario Perazolo Masjoan
Virtual Cinema
VIRTUAL CINEMA COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Biolum
Director: Abel Kohen
VIRTUAL CINEMA SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Finding Pandora X
Director: Kiira Benzing
SXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN
Audience Award Winner: Birds Of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Title Sequence
Creative Director and Illustrator: Michael Riley