Tom Petty, Folk Horror Lead SXSW Audience Awards
By Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle, March 23, 2021
The people have spoken. The SXSW 2021 Audience Awards have been announced, and it’s a clean sweep for teen drama The Fallout as this year’s favorite narrative feature.
Megan Park’s feature took the Narrative Feature prize in last week’s jury award, and manages the double with this win in the audience voting.
On the local side, former Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse booker Kier-La Janisse took the top prize for best Midnighter with her epic documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, while Kayla Abuda Galang won the Texas Short category for “Learning Tagalog with Kayla.”
Here’s the full list of 2021 audience award winners, and don’t forget you can find all our SXSW 2021 coverage at austinchronicle.com/sxsw:
HEADLINERS: Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free, D: Mary Wharton (read our interview with Wharton)
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION: The Fallout, D: Megan Park (read our review)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION: Not Going Quietly, D: Nicholas Bruckman
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT: Language Lessons, D: Natalie Morales (read our review)
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT: Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, D: Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler
VISIONS: Inbetween Girl D: Mei Makino
MIDNIGHTERS: Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror D: Kier-La Janisse (read our interview with Janisse, and our review)
GLOBAL: Ninjababy D: Yngvild Sve Flikke
24 BEATS PER SECOND: Soy Cubana, D: Jeremy Ungar, Ivaylo Getov
FESTIVAL FAVORITES: In The Same Breath, D: Nanfu Wang
2020 SPOTLIGHT: We Are The Thousand, D: Anita Rivaroli
Shorts
NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION: “Play It Safe” D: Mitch Kalisa
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION: “Joe Buffalo” D: Amar Chebib
ANIMATED SHORTS COMPETITION: “Opera” D: Erick Oh
MIDNIGHT SHORTS COMPETITION: “Stuffed” D: Theo Rhys
TEXAS SHORTS COMPETITION: “Learning Tagalog with Kayla” D: Kayla Abuda Galang (read our interview with Galanag)
TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS COMPETITION: “Beyond the Model” D: Jessica Lin
MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION: Kuricorder Quartet – ‘Southpaw’ D: Sawako Kabuki
Episodic Program
EPISODIC PREMIERES: Them, showrunner: Little Marvin
EPISODIC PILOT COMPETITION: 4 Feet High, D: Maria Belen Poncio, Rosario Perazolo Masjoan
Virtual Cinema
VIRTUAL CINEMA COMPETITION: Biolum, D: Abel Kohen
VIRTUAL CINEMA SPOTLIGHT: Finding Pandora X, D: Kiira Benzing
SXSW Film Design Awards
EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN: Birds Of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) Title Sequence. Creative Director and Illustrator: Michael Riley