"KRISHA" is people’s choice in narrative feature competition; "Peace Officer" takes Audience docu honor
Director/screenwriter Trey Edward Shults’ family drama KRISHA–which won the Grand Jury Prize for narrative features earlier this week at the SXSW Film Festival–took the fest’s Audience Award today in the narrative feature competition.
Similarly the Grand Jury Prize documentary winner, Peace Officer directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber, captured the Audience Award in the Documentary category.
Among the other Audience Award winners were A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story, directed by Sara Hirsh Bordo, which topped the Documentary Spotlight category; Hello, My Name is Doris, directed by Michael Showalter, the people’s Headliners choice; Uncle Kent 2, directed by Todd Rohal, which took the top Visions honor; Turbo Kid, helmed by the RKSS Collective, which won in the Midnighters category; and the 24 Beats Per Second honoree, Landfill Harmonic, directed by Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley.
Here’s a full rundown of Audience Award winners:
SXSW Film 2015 Audience Award Winners
24 Beats Per Second: Landfill Harmonic
Directors: Brad Allgood, Graham Townsley
Narrative Spotlight: The Little Death
Director: Josh Lawson
Documentary Feature Competition: Peace Officer
Directors: Scott Christopherson, Brad Barber
Festival Favorites: The Look Of Silence
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Narrative Feature Competition: KRISHA
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Documentary Spotlight: A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story
Director: Sara Hirsh Bordo
Visions: Uncle Kent 2
Director: Todd Rohal
Episodic: Mr. Robot
Director: Sam Esmail
SXGlobal: Kings of Nowhere
Director: Betzabé García
Midnighters: Turbo Kid
Director: RKSS Collective
Headliners: Hello, My Name is Doris
Director: Michael Showalter
Poster Design Audience Award Winner: Pink Grapefruit
Designer: Simon Dargan for Musta Lunta
Title Design Audience Award Winner: The Fitzroy
Designers: Chris Tozer and Marko Anstice
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More