Austin Film Festival

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 FeatureWith 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 ShortOne for Sorrow, Two for Joy, written/directed by Ana Yang 

Student ShortSammy, Without Strings, written by Will Henderson, III & Ralph Parker, III, directed by Ralph Parker, III

Documentary ShortGina, directed by Kathryn Prescott 

Animated ShortRosemary A.D. (After Dad), directed by Ethan Barrett 

Produced Digital SeriesSerjan 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 AwardLose It, written/directed by AJ Taylor

Texas Short Filmmaker Award presented by Austin Movie GearDon’t You Go Nowhere, written/directed by Bryan Poyser

Blackmagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Fellowship AwardHalf, 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, EastThe F*ck-It List by Nick Gambino

Drama Teleplay Pilot AwardWayward by Christopher Cramer

Drama Teleplay Spec AwardThe Crown: “Last Looks” by Claire Winters

Comedy Feature Screenplay AwardSense & Sensibility by Sal Neslusan

Comedy Teleplay Pilot AwardUntethered by Charlie Frazier & Chris Frazier

Comedy Teleplay Spec AwardCurb Your Enthusiasm: “JEFFREY” by Clayton Jordan

Digital Series Award Walk Into a Bar by Cassandra Rose

Fiction Podcast Award presented by Voyage MediaCeleritas by Alexander Adell

Short Screenplay AwardSlayfest by Mark Renshaw

Playwriting Award Talk of the Town by Mike Bencivenga

Horror Screenplay AwardThe Psycho Killers Guide to Love by JP LeRoux

Sci-Fi Screenplay AwardPaschar by Jennifer Burns

Rooster Teeth Fellowship Awards, BIPOC categoryMomentous by Ana Maria Defillo

Rooster Teeth Fellowship Awards, Women & Animation categoryAllegra 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 AwardThree Faces of Hunger and Thirst by HF Crum

AMC One-Hour Pilot AwardSouvenir, Alaska by Mac Smullen

Josephson Entertainment Screenwriting FellowshipUntethered 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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