The 2021 SXSW Film Festival, which played as an online event during the pandemic, has unveiled its juried, special award and Audience Award winners. The big picture winner spanning both the juried and audience honors was The Fallout, written and directed by Megan Park. Judges bestowed upon The Fallout best Narrative Feature distinction–as did fest audience members.
The Fallout centers on high schooler Vada who experiences and tries to navigate through emotional fallout in the wake of a school tragedy. Relationships with her family, friends and view of the world are forever altered. The Fallout was produced by David Brown, Rebecca Miller, Cara Shine, Joannie Burstein and Shaun Sanghani. The cast includes Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, Niles Fitch, Will Ropp, Lumi Pollack, John Ortiz, Julie Bowen, Shailene Woodley.
A judges’ statement on the film read in part, “Writer and director Megan Park delivers a timely, riveting, and thought-provoking film on the toll it takes on a teenager who is facing a world where they no longer feel safe. It is an intense, moving piece that highlights an important issue to which one can’t help but feel connected.”
Park additionally earned a special directorial kudo at SXSW, a Brightcove Illumination Award for The Fallout. She was recognized “for her empathetic and honest exploration of life after tragedy, inspired craft, and stellar guidance of a talented young cast.”
The Brightcove Illumination Award honors a filmmaker on the rise, celebrating the innovation and creativity of new artists within the SXSW Film Festival official selections.
Meanwhile the judges and audience tastes differed on the marquee documentary feature of the year. The juried honor went to director Jeremy Workman’s Lily Topples The World which earned best Documentary Feature distinction. The feature follows 20-year-old Lily Hevesh–the world’s most acclaimed domino toppler and the only woman in her field–in a coming-of-age story of artistry, passion, and unlikely triumph. Workman and Robert J. Lyons served as producers.
The judges’ statement read, “A joyful portrait of grace in artistry and commitment in engineering, Lily Topples the World shows a life online that transcends virality and touches something deeper. In Lily Hevesh, aka Hevesh5, the film features a collaborative, creative soul who comes by community and entrepreneurship naturally. A rare achievement in nonjudgmental subcultural exploration and a gorgeously rendered portrait of burgeoning adulthood that tumbles forward, like Lily’s domino art, into something beautiful.”
The Audience Award in the Documentary Feature Competition was presented to director Nicholas Bruckman’s Not Going Quietly. Bruckman and Amanda Roddy wrote and produced the documentary that tells the story of when a young father chances to meet a powerful senator on an airplane, their exchange goes viral, sparking one of the most unlikely political movements in a generation.
Not Going Quietly also made some noise on the SXSW juried awards side, garnering Special Jury Recognition for Humanity in Social Action. The judges’ statement read, “Activist is a word much used in contemporary culture. But few give expression to it like Ady Barkan, a California organizer who, upon being diagnosed with ALS in his early 30s, responds not with self-pitying convalescence but by barnstorming his fight across the country, bringing a movement with him. Barkan’s tale suggests that grace is not incompatible with ardor, and hardship no obstacle to achievement. Bruckman’s film captures him and the powerful women who lead his fight in ways that are richly human, always affectionate and frequently rousing.”
In addition to The Fallout and Not Going Quietly, among the other Audience Award winners were: Director Mary Wharton’s Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free which topped the Headliners competition; Language Lessons from director Natalie Morales which took the Narrative Spotlight honor; Documentary Spotlight awardee Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America from directors Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler; Inbetween Girl directed by Mei Makino which took the Visions category; director Kier-La Janisse’s Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, the Midnighters honor recipient; the Global Award recipient Ninjababy directed by Yngvild Sve Flikke; and director Nanfu Wang’s In The Same Breath which earned Festival Favorite distinction.
JURIED WINNERS
Besides The Fallout, Lily Topples The World and Not Going Quietly, the 2021 SXSW Film Fest juried winners (with judges statements) included:
Special Jury Recognition for Multi-hyphenate Storyteller
I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking)
Directors: Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina
“Kelley Kali’s I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking), financed in part by stimulus relief checks, is a marvel of multitasking and resourcefulness. Kali’s film, which she wrote, directed, produced and stars in, winningly captures the pandemic plight of a homeless, roller-skating single mother over a memorable daylong odyssey.”
Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Performance
Islands
Director: Martin Edralin
Actor: Rogelio Balagtas
“Islands gives us the story of a painfully shy man set adrift in the world by the declining health of the parents who sheltered him. This story, of someone blooming late in life, hinges on the tremendously compelling, interior performance from relative newcomer Rogelio Balagtas who can break hearts throughout with his tears and enables the movie to transcend with a single smile.”
Special Jury Recognition for Exceptional Intimacy in Storytelling
Introducing, Selma Blair
Director: Rachel Fleit
“Selma Blair’s unflinching and raw vulnerability in Introducing, Selma Blair, coupled with director Rachel Fleit’s almost voyeuristic chronicling of her MS diagnosis, invites us not just to feel empathy for the star. More than that, it invites us into her fight, prompting anyone watching to feel joined with her in battle. That level of disarming intimacy is rarely witnessed on screen, particularly from a public figure, making the feat all the more incredible.”
SHORT FILM GRAND JURY AWARDS
Narrative Shorts
Play It Safe
Director: Mitch Kalisa
“Of the shorts, we have decided to award the Jury Award to Play It Safe, for approaching oft-addressed topics in a new way, for its incredible main performance, for its thoughtful direction, and compelling cinematography.”
Special Jury Recognition for Visionary Storytelling
Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma
Directors: Topaz Jones, rubberband.
“We are awarding Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma a Special Jury Recognition for Visionary Storytelling for its bold filmmaking and mix of music, visuals, and documentary footage.”
Special Jury Recognition for Direction
Like the Ones I Used to Know
Director: Annie St-Pierre
“We are awarding Like the Ones I Used to Know a Special Jury Recognition for Direction, as its weaving between reality and flights of fancy make it a Christmas tale to remember. Congratulations to all of the filmmakers this year, and thank you for your new works!”
Documentary Shorts
Águilas
Directors: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Maite Zubiaurre
“Águilas is a film that most poignantly displays the need immigrants feel to come to America — even at the cost of starvation and death. Failed attempts are presented by a backpack, a sweater, and scattered bones. How desperate the dream is of a perfect landing that ends so tragically.”
Special Jury Recognition for Courage
Red Taxi
Director: Anonymous
“Red Taxi is a film that is being recognized for its courage. The type of courage that spans the definition of the word. The subjects are courageous, the filmmakers are courageous, and the film itself is courageous both stylistically and in the way it speaks on an issue through editing that is measured, considered, and understanding of the complexities of the post-colonial project.”
Special Jury Recognition for Poetry
I Ran From It and Was Still in It
Director: Darol Olu Kae
“Its title invites audiences to expect a wholly distinct storytelling experience and this film delivers. For its audacious storytelling through textured imagery, bold structure and lyrical approach, we award this special achievement to I Ran From It and Was Still In It.”
Midnight Shorts
The Moogai
Director: Jon Bell
“The Moogai is a haunting, psychological thriller that explores postpartum depression in an impressive display of disciplined filmmaking that stuck the landing at every pivotal moment. The cinematography is striking, the actor’s performances are brave, and the underlying commentary on a country’s forced removal of generations of children is heartbreaking. Filmmaker Jon Bell’s film affected us on so many levels that we proudly recognize it with the Jury Award prize.”
Special Jury Recognition for Bold Vision
Stuffed
Director: Theo Rhys
“Stuffed proudly presents a story grisly and grotesque yet beautifully bittersweet. Director and co-writer Theo Rhys stitches together a world of rot, flesh, and leather, then brings it to radiant life with curious characters and striking songs of dark dreams, lifting love, and the ultimate sacrifice. It is with shock and awe that we award this strange and sensational short a Jury Recognition for Bold Vision.”
Animated Shorts
Nuevo Rico
Director: Kristian Mercado
“Be prepared for this dystopian tragedy to rip your hair out by the roots and pour liquid vaporwave rainbows directly onto your brain’s tongue. A cautionary tale of friendship and fame, Nuevo Rico slaps convention to the ground and stomps on it with steel toed boots of satisfying stylistic innovation. Kristian Mercado Figueroa doesn’t give a fuck — and gives all the fucks at the same time. If you’ve never wrestled a laser snake in a Lambo going two hundred off a cliff into an iridescent volcano, Nuevo Rico will make you feel like you have.”
Special Jury Recognition for Innovation
KKUM
Director: Kang Min Kim
“An awe inspiring masterclass in creativity, resourcefulness, and innovative lighting and stop-motion techniques. This film manages to elevate simplistic materials to create mesmerizing sequences, while also taking you on a poetic, dreamy, and emotional journey that serves as a beautiful tribute to a mother’s love.”
Special Jury Recognition for Storytelling
Your Own Bullshit
Director: Daria Kopiec
“We the jury have selected Your Own Bullshit for a Jury Recognition for Storytelling for its masterful and experimental take on a vastly relatable human story. Its stylistic choices, humor, sound design, character development, and pace bring excitement to a topic under which it is not easy to push boundaries. Yet, it does just that.”
SXSW SPECIAL AWARD
Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
In honor of a filmmaker whose work strives to be wholly its own, without regard for norms or desire to conform. The Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award is presented to a filmmaker from SXSW’s Visions screening category. This year’s Adam Yauch Hornblower Award was presented to director Caroline Catz for Delia Derbyshire–the Myths and the Legendary Tapes
