Raging Grace has taken the 2023 SXSW Narrative Feature Competition award and Angel Applicant has taken top prize in the Documentary Feature Competition.
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Raging Grace director Paris Zarcilla’s film about an undocumented Filipina house cleaner and her daughter who find work for a wealthy British man was praised by the jury for “cleverly employing genre tropes to explore vast socio-political matters”.
Courtney Eaton won the special jury award for performance for her role in Parachute, Brittany Snow’s feature directorial debut about a young woman freshly out of rehab who falls for a young man released from prison. Eric Branco earned a special jury award for cinematography for Story Ave.
Ken August Meyer’s Documentary Feature Competition winner Angel Applicant was lauded by jurors as “a gripping, autobiographical story about illness and an incisive work of art history”. It follows a man with the autoimmune disease systemic scleroderma who finds solace in the work of 19th / 20th century Swiss-German artist Paul Klee, who had the same condition.
A Special Jury Award for Innovation in Storytelling went to Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn’s deep fake film Another Body.
In the short film categories Shadi Karamroudi’s It Turns Blue won the Narrative Short Competition and Grandma & Grandma (Nai Nai & Wai Po) by Sean Wang took the Documentary Short Competition prize. Nick Roney’s The Flute won Midnight Shorts, and Elizabeth Hobb’s The Debutante won Animated Shorts.
“What an extraordinary week of film and TV premieres here at SXSW, and there is more to come through Saturday,” said Claudette Godfrey, VP, Film & TV. “Our theatres have been brimming with enthusiastic audiences celebrating the exceptional and diverse work in our line-up, and we’re so excited to celebrate this year’s jury and special award winners!”
Godfrey and her team will have been celebrating alongside filmmakers and attendees Sunday’s Oscar triumph for Everything Everywhere All At Once, which premiered at SXSW last year and won seven Oscars including best film and lead actress for Michelle Yeoh.
All 2023 film categories will be eligible for category-specific Audience Awards and voting for those awards will conclude on March 19 and be announced by the festival that week.
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