Here Are the Winners of the 2020 SXSM Film Festival Awards

COVID-19 may have canceled the festival, but these creatives still earned their awards.

sxsw film festival awards 2020
Festivalgoers attend the “Bluebird” Premiere during 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals at The Paramount Theater on March 14, 2019 in Austin, Texas. Hutton Supancic/Getty Images for SXSW

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the 27th annual SXSW Film Festival (along with Comedy and Music), scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas from March 13-22 was canceled. The SXSW festivals are a celebration of raw talent and creative innovation in the comedy, tech, music and film industries and serve as a jumping-off point for the newest wave of talent in the media industry. Fortunately, even though coronavirus canceled the festival, its film awards were still announced.

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Today, SXSW revealed the Jury and Special Awards for the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. “We know that it’s no substitute for the actual festival’s vitality, enthusiasm, and potential for surprising outcomes – and that it is only available to a small fraction of our program – but we hope it will help garner some well-deserved recognition for these wonderful works,” the festival’s Director of Film Janet Pierson said in a news release.

Here are the winners:

2020 SXSW Film Festival Juries:

Narrative Feature Competition: Rebecca Keegan, Rodrigo Perez, Kim Yutani
Documentary Feature Competition: Bilge Ebiri, Naomi Fry, Dino Ramos
Narrative Shorts Program: Penelope Bartlett, Monica Castillo, Greta Fuentes
Documentary Shorts: Marjon Javadi, Allison Willmore
Animated Shorts: Katie Krentz, Hana Shimizu, Asalle Tanha
Midnight Shorts: Jonathan Barkan, Derek Kingongo, Brittany Klesic
Music Videos: Jason Baum, Chaka and Qi Dada
Texas Shorts: Denise Hernandez, Jenny Jacobi, Martin C. Jones
Texas High School Shorts: Jonathan Case, Jazmyne Moreno, Barton Weiss
Episodic Pilots: Mitch Hurwitz, Emily Nussbaum, Shelby Stone
Louis Black “Lone Star”: Kathy Blackwell, David Fear, Richard Whittaker
Excellence in Title Design: Ryan Butterworth, Alex Johnson
Excellence in Poster Design: Becky Cloonan, Barak Epstein, Kevin Tong

2020 SXSW Film Festival Awards:

Feature Film Grand Jury Awards

Narrative Feature Competition
Winner: Shithouse
Director: Cooper Raiff

Special Jury Recognition for Directing: Topside
Directors: Celine Held, Logan George

Special Jury Recognition for Acting: Really Love
Director: Angel Kristi Williams
Actors: Kofi Siriboe, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing

Documentary Feature Competition
Winner: An Elephant in the Room
Director: Katrine Philp

Special Jury Recognition for Achievement in Documentary Storytelling: The Donut King
Director: Alice Gu

Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice: Finding Yingying
Director: Jiayan “Jenny” Shi

Short Film Grand Jury Awards

Narrative Shorts
Winner: White Eye
Director: Tomer Shushan

Special Jury Recognition for Acting: Dirty
Director: Matthew Puccini
Actors: Morgan Sullivan, Manny Dunn

Special Jury Recognition: Darling
Director: Saim Sadiq

Special Jury Recognition: Single
Director: Ashley Eakin

Documentary Shorts
Winner: No Crying at the Dinner Table
Director: Carol Nguyen

Special Jury Recognition: Mizuko
Directors: Katelyn Rebelo, Kira Dane

Special Jury Recognition: Día de la Madre
Directors: Ashley Brandon, Dennis Höhne

Midnight Shorts
Winner: Regret
Director: Santiago Menghini

Special Jury Recognition: Laura Hasn’t Slept
Director: Parker Finn

Special Jury Recognition for Creature Design: Stucco
Directors: Janina Gavankar, Russo Schelling

Animated Shorts
Winner: Symbiosis
Director: Nadja Andrasev

Special Jury Recognition: No, I Don’t Want to Dance!
Director: Andrea Vinciguerra

Special Jury Recognition: The Shawl
Director: Sara Kiener

Music Videos
Winner: 070 Shake – ‘Nice to Have’
Director: Noah Lee

Special Jury Recognition for Animation: Mitski – ‘A Pearl’
Directors: Saad Moosajee, Art Camp

Special Jury Recognition for Direction: The Lumineers – ‘Gloria’
Director: Kevin Phillips

Texas Shorts
Winner: Just Hold On
Directors: Sam Davis, Rayka Zehtabchi

Special Jury Recognition: Coup d’etat Math
Director: Sai Selvarajan

Texas High School Shorts
Winner: Wish Upon a Snowman
Director: Miu Nakata

Special Jury Recognition for Narrative: Ultimatum
Director: Kai Hashimoto

Special Jury Recognition for Documentary: Unveiled
Director: Sofia Bajwa

Special Jury Recognition for Animation: The Orchard
Director: Zeke French

Episodic Pilot Competition

Winner: Embrace
Director: Jessica Sanders

Special Jury Recognition for Drama: Chemo Brain
Director: Kristian Håskjold

Special Jury Recognition for Comedy: Lusty Crest
Director: Kati Skelton

Film Design Awards

Excellence in Poster Design
Winner: Laura Hasn’t Slept
Designer: Olivier Courbet

Special Jury Recognition: The Donut King
Designers: Andrew Hem, Charlie Le

Excellence in Title Design
Winner: See
Designer: Karin Fong

Special Jury Recognition: Why We Hate
Designers: Allison Brownmoore, Anthony Brownmoore

Special Awards

Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
Winner: In & of Itself
Director: Frank Oz

Adobe Editing Award
Winner: You Cannot Kill David Arquette
Editors: Paul Rogers, Additional Editing by David Darg

Final Draft Screenwriters Award
Winner: Best Summer Ever
Screenwriters: Michael Parks Randa, Will Halby, Terra Mackintosh, Andrew Pilkington, Lauren Smitelli

Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
Winner: Miss Juneteenth
Director: Channing Godfrey Peoples

Special Jury Recognition for Performance: Bull
Director: Annie Silverstein
Actor: Rob Morgan

Special Jury Recognition for Documentary: Boys State
Directors: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

Vimeo Staff Picks Award
Winner: Vert
Director: Kate Cox

ZEISS Cinematography Award
Winner: Echoes of the Invisible
Director: Steve Elkins

Congratulations to this year’s winners! Hopefully, the 28th annual SXSW conferences will progress as planned for 2021.

Here Are the Winners of the 2020 SXSM Film Festival Awards