2018 SXSW Film Festival Announces Jury and Special Awards

The SXSW Conference and Festivals announced the 2018 Jury and Special Award winners of the 2018 SXSW Film Festival Awards Presented by FilmStruck at the historic Paramount Theatre. The awards were hosted by actor and comedian Jim Gaffigan. Feature films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature Competition categories. Films in competition categories, as well as all feature categories (with the exception of Special Events) and the Title Design Competition entrants, are also eligible for the 2018 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. All Audience Awards will be announced separately on Saturday, March 17, except for Headliners, which will be announced on Monday, March 19.

SXSW also announced the Jury Award winners in the Shorts Program and winners of the SXSW Film Design Awards Special Awards including the Louis Black "Lone Star" Award, the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship, and the SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award. The SXSW LUNA® Gamechanger Award - Narrative and SXSW LUNA® Chicken & Egg Award - Documentary were also presented, including a $10,000 artist award and mentoring to help female filmmakers hone their craft in the fiction and documentary categories, seek new and exciting opportunities, and navigate the changing media landscape.

The 2018 SXSW Film Festival Juries consisted of:

Narrative Feature Competition: Justin Chang, Col Needham, Emily Yoshida
Documentary Feature Competition: K. Austin Collins, Violet Lucca, April Wolfe
Narrative Shorts Program: Dilcia Barrera, Nick Borenstein, Brandon Harris
Documentary Shorts: David Matthews, Erica Deiparine-Sugars, Pam Torno
Animated Shorts: Aki Isoyama, Kirsten Lepore, Eric Power
Midnight Shorts: Sara Cushman, Missy Laney, Pip Ngo
Music Videos: Dan Deacon, John T. Kunz, Daniel Scheinert
Texas Shorts: James Faust, Rebecca Morelo Jackson, Ali Nichols
Texas High School Shorts: Barak Epstein, Bob Ray, Bart Weiss
Independent Episodics: Rebecca Agbe-Davies, Christine Dávila, Randi Kleiner
Louis Black "Lone Star": Victor Diaz, Steve Dollar, Dana Harris
Excellence in Title Design: Dan Brown, Jonathan Lacocque, Mara Smalley
Excellence in Poster Design: Sean Carnegie, Michelle Schwartz, Kevin Tong

Over the course of nine days, the 2018 SXSW Film Festival will screen 136 features, consisting of 89 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres, and 6 US Premieres, with 49 first-time filmmakers. 98 shorts and 20 music videos will screen as part of 12 curated shorts programs. The 256 films were selected from 8,183 overall submissions, consisting of approximately 2,476 features and 4,433 shorts.

Take a look at our 2018 SXSW Film Festival Award Winners!

Feature Film Grand Jury Awards

Narrative Feature Competition

Grand Jury Winner: Thunder Road
Director: Jim Cummings

Special Jury Recognition For First Feature: Carly Stone
Film: The New Romantic

Special Jury Recognition for Writing: Niljla Mu'min
Film: Jinn

Documentary Feature Competition

Grand Jury Winner: People's Republic of Desire
Director: Hao Wu

Special Jury Recognition for Best Cast: This One's For The Ladies
Director: Gene Graham

Special Jury Recognition for Best Feminist Reconsideration of a Male Artist: Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable
Director: Sasha Waters Freyer

SXSW Short Film Jury Awards

Presented by Vimeo. Vimeo empowers video creators of all kinds to tell exceptional stories and connect with their audiences and communities.

Narrative Shorts

Jury Award Winner: Emergency
Director: Carey Williams

Special Jury Recognition for Acting:
Actor: Shirley Chen from Krista

Documentary Shorts

Jury Award Winner: My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes
Director: Charlie Tyrell

Midnight Shorts

Jury Award Winner: Milk
Director: Santiago Menghini

Animated Shorts

Jury Award Winner: Agua Viva
Director: Alexa Lim Haas

Special Jury Recognition: JEOM
Director: Kangmin Kim

Music Videos

Jury Award Winner: "Second Hand Lovers" - Oren Lavie
Director: Oren Lavie

Special Jury Recognition for Acting: "Territory" - The Blaze
Director: The Blaze

Texas Shorts

Jury Award Winner: An Uncertain Future
Director: Iliana Sosa & Chelsea Hernandez

Texas High School Shorts

Jury Award Winner: The Night I Lost My Favorite Jacket
Director: Jenna Krumerman

Special Jury Recognition: CCISD Strong
Director: Sofia Rasmussen

Independent Episodics

Jury Award Winner: Beast
Director: Ben Strang

Special Jury Recognition: She's the Ticket
Director: Nadia Hallgren

SXSW Film Design Awards

Excellence in Poster Design

Jury Award Winner: The Gospel of Eureka
Designer: Matt Taylor

Special Jury Recognition: A Little Wisdom
Designer: Adam Zhu

Excellence in Title Design

Jury Award Winner: Counterpart Director: Karin Fong

Special Jury Recognition: Godless
Director: John Likens

SXSW Special Awards

SXSW LUNA® Gamechanger Award - Narrative
Winner: First Match, Olivia Newman

Special Jury Recognition:
Unlovable, Suzi Yoonessi

SXSW LUNA® Chicken & Egg Award - Documentary
Winner: On Her Shoulders Alexandria Bombach

Special Jury Recognition:
¡Las Sandinistas!, Jenny Murray

Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
Winner: Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Director: Dana Adam Shapiro

SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
Winner: Prospect, Zeek Earl & Chris Caldwell

Vimeo Staff Picks Award
Presented to: Krista directed by Danny Madden

Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship
Presented to: Kristin Bye

The SXSW Film Awards are presented by FilmStruck. FilmStruck is a new streaming service for serious film fans, offering a comprehensive library including indie, contemporary and classic art house, foreign and cult films. It is the exclusive streaming home of The Criterion Collection.