Welcome, Violeta!, written by Fernando Fraiha & Inés Bortagaray, won the Narrative Feature Jury Award at the Austin Film Festival, which is especially focused on writers’ contributions to film, television, theatre, and new media. In total, Austin announced 13 Jury Award winners, 11 Audience Award winners, and 18 Script Competition winners from among more than 5,000 film submissions and over 10,000 script submissions.
Audience Awards winners included Salma’s Home, a story of two widows brought together though death, written and directed by Hanadi Elyan, that we wrote about here; and the wild psychosexual thriller Follow Her, directed by Sylvia Caminer, who we interviewed here.
The Austin Film Festival, which is one of MovieMaker‘s 2022 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, ran from October 27 to November 3, offering Film Festival and Writers Conference programming at several venues around Austin. Next year’s Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference will be held from October 26 to November 2.
Film Jury winners were selected by jurors including Roy Lee (Barbarian, It, The Ring), Jameel Saleem (Bob’s Burgers, South Park, Disenchantment), Missy Laney (Director of Development, Adult Swim), and Tierney Branda (Senior VP of Physical Production, MGM). Here are the Jury Award winners:
Narrative Feature – Welcome, Violeta!, written by Fernando Fraiha & Inés Bortagaray, directed by Fernando Fraiha
Documentary Feature – With this Light, directed by Nicole Bernardi-Reis & Laura Bermúdez
Comedy Vanguard Feature – The Library Boys, written/directed by Zane Borg
Dark Matters Feature – The Domestic, written/directed by Brad Katzen
Narrative Short – One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, written/directed by Ana Yang
Student Short – Sammy, Without Strings, written by Will Henderson, III & Ralph Parker, III, directed by Ralph Parker, III
Documentary Short – Gina, directed by Kathryn Prescott
Animated Short – Rosemary A.D. (After Dad), directed by Ethan Barrett
Produced Digital Series – Serjan Bratan, written by Alisher Utev & Sergei Litovchenko, directed by Alisher Utev
Enderby Entertainment Filmmaking Fellowship Award – Charette, written/directed by Sara Pinar Onder
Ghetto Film School Fellowship Award – Lose It, written/directed by AJ Taylor
Texas Short Filmmaker Award presented by Austin Movie Gear – Don’t You Go Nowhere, written/directed by Bryan Poyser
Blackmagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Fellowship Award – Half, written/directed by Jacob Roberts
After each screening, audience members were asked to cast their votes for the Audience Awards, recognizing the audience’s Festival favorites among the 2022 film slate. Here are the Audience Awards winners, by category:
Marquee Film: Sam & Kate, written/directed by Darren Le Gallo
Narrative Feature: Salma’s Home, written/directed by Hanadi Elyan
Documentary Feature: Song of the Cicada, written by Robert Weiss, directed by Aaron & Robert Weiss
Dark Matters Feature: Follow Her, written by Dani Barker, directed by Sylvia Caminer
Comedy Feature: Dance Dads, written by Brock Harris & Jared Bonner, directed by Brock Harris
Texas Independent Feature: Beauty Of A Blank Space, written by Ryan Love & Laurel Toupal, directed by Ryan Love
Narrative Short: The Red Suitcase, written by Guillaume Levil & Cyrus Neshvad, directed by Cyrus Neshvad
Documentary Short: Free To Care, directed by Chris Temple & Owen Dubeck
Animated Short: Rosemary A.D. (After Dad), directed by Ethan Barrett
Produced Digital Series: (TIE) Day Jobs, written by Stevie Wain, directed by Stevie Wain & Auri Jackson and Mt. Mystic Rangers, written by Jeremiah Dunlap & Cory Quintard, directed by Jeremiah Dunlap
The 2022 Script Competition winners were chosen from a record field of more than 10,000 scripts entered in the Screenplay, Digital Series, Playwriting, and Fiction Podcast Competitions. The winners were selected by judges including Jim Hart (Hook, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Contact), Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Pokémon Detective Pikachu), Tripper Clancy (Stuber, I Am Not Okay With This, Die Hart), & Kelly Edwards (Living Single, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Clueless, Two Guys and a Girl). The screenplay winners were:
Drama Feature Screenplay Award presented by The Writers Guild of America, East – The F*ck-It List by Nick Gambino
Drama Teleplay Pilot Award – Wayward by Christopher Cramer
Drama Teleplay Spec Award – The Crown: “Last Looks” by Claire Winters
Comedy Feature Screenplay Award – Sense & Sensibility by Sal Neslusan
Comedy Teleplay Pilot Award – Untethered by Charlie Frazier & Chris Frazier
Comedy Teleplay Spec Award – Curb Your Enthusiasm: “JEFFREY” by Clayton Jordan
Digital Series Award – Walk Into a Bar by Cassandra Rose
Fiction Podcast Award presented by Voyage Media – Celeritas by Alexander Adell
Short Screenplay Award – Slayfest by Mark Renshaw
Playwriting Award – Talk of the Town by Mike Bencivenga
Horror Screenplay Award – The Psycho Killers Guide to Love by JP LeRoux
Sci-Fi Screenplay Award – Paschar by Jennifer Burns
Rooster Teeth Fellowship Awards, BIPOC category – Momentous by Ana Maria Defillo
Rooster Teeth Fellowship Awards, Women & Animation category – Allegra Sparkle’s Guide to the Great Composers (You Might Not Have Heard Of) by Lillie Gardner
Warner Brothers Pilot Award – Tin Can Alley by Thomas Schoch
Enderby Entertainment Award – Three Faces of Hunger and Thirst by HF Crum
AMC One-Hour Pilot Award – Souvenir, Alaska by Mac Smullen
Josephson Entertainment Screenwriting Fellowship – Untethered by Charlie Frazier & Chris Frazier and The Gold Fish by Barbara Ward Thall
Main image: Austin Film Festival Screenplay Winners at the Awards Luncheon Saturday October 29. Photo by Jack Plunkett, courtesy of Austin Film Festival.
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