SXSW Film Audience Award Winners Announced

AUSTIN, TX — SXSW organizers announced the audience award winners among the various films screened during the two-week festival that wrapped up on Sunday.

Winners were announced the winners from the Narrative Feature Competition; Documentary Feature Competition; Narrative Spotlight; Documentary Spotlight; Visions; Midnighters; Episodic; 24 Beats Per Second; Global; Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. Headliners will be announced on Monday, March 19, officials said.

Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter. The SXSW Film Awards are presented by FilmStruck. The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2018 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Thunder Road for Narrative Feature and People's Republic of Desire for Documentary Feature.

2018 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:

• NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

Audience Award Winner: First Match

Director: Olivia Newman

Image courtesy of Netflix

• DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

Audience Award Winner: TransMilitary

Directors: Gabriel Silverman, Fiona Dawson

Senior Airman Logan Ireland on patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan. | Credit: Logan Ireland

• NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT

Audience Award Winner: All Square

Director: John Hyams

Actors, Jesse Ray Sheps and Michael Kelly, on set of ALL SQUARE. | Credit: Jordan Foley)

• DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT

Audience Award Winner: The Dawn Wall

Director: Josh Lowell, Peter Mortimer

Director Josh Lowell, courtesy of Big Up Productions

• VISIONS

Audience Award Winner: Profile

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Director Timur Bekmambetov, courtesy Bazelevs

• MIDNIGHTERS

Audience Award Winner: Upgrade

Director: Leigh Whannell

Logan Marshall Green as Grey Trace, courtesy image

• EPISODIC

Audience Award Winner: Vida

Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios, So Yong Kim

Melissa Barrera and Mishel Prada of "Vida" | Credit: Copyright Starz

• 24 BEATS PER SECOND

Audience Award Winner: Ruben Blades Is Not My Name

Director: Abner Benaim

Ruben Blades before concert crowd, courtesy image

• GLOBAL

Audience Award Winner: Virus Tropical

Director: Santiago Caicedo

Credit: Timbo Estudio

• FESTIVAL FAVORITES

Audience Award Winner: Science Fair

Director: Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster

Doris Fu from Jericho High School in New York expresses relief after hours of judging at the International Science and Engineering Fair. | Credit: Peter Alton)

SXSW Film Design Awards

EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN

Audience Award Winner: #19 – Offf Barcelona 2017

Directors: Eve Duhamel, Julien Vallee

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Over the course of nine days, the 2018 SXSW Film Festival screened 136 features, consisting of 89 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres, and six U.S. Premieres, with 49 first-time filmmakers. 98 shorts and 20 music videos screened 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.

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