The 28th Slamdance Film Festival announced its awards winners on Friday, with Grand Jury Awards going to “Hannah Ha Ha” for Narrative Feature, “Forget Me Not” for Documentary Feature, “Killing the Eunuch KHAN” for Breakout Feature and “Straighten Up and Fly Right” for Unstoppable Feature.
The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to “The Civil Dead,” while “Iron Family” scooped up the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. “The Ember Knight Show: ‘Getting Mad’” received the Audience Award for Episodes.
“We congratulate the winners of Slamdance 2022 and every one of our filmmakers who together created a showcase that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in storytelling,” said Slamdance President and Co-founder Peter Baxter. “The future of film depends on these unique voices who defy simple classification and transcend analytics. Key to supporting this endeavor is accessibility and the major growth of our online audience who’ve tuned into the new Slamdance Channel.”
There were also four festival-wide awards given out this year, including the AGBO Fellowship, presented by Slamdance alumni and “Avengers” helmers Joe and Anthony Russo. For directing “Therapy Dogs,” Ethan Eng will receive the $25,000 prize as well as mentorship from the Russo brothers.
The festival’s top acting award went to Hannah Lee Thompson of “Hannah Ha Ha,” with an honorable mention for “Bracha”s Batel Moseri. The George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award, awarded to the filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of Slamdance, went to Sasha Levinson, director of “Sylvie of the Sunshine State.” Lastly, Hannah Saidiner picked up the CreativeFuture Innovation Award for the animated film “My Parent Neal.”
Founded in 1995 in rebellion to its neighboring festival Sundance, the 28th edition of Slamdance runs virtually from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6. This year’s lineup included 23 premieres and showcased the talents of filmmakers from all over the world. As a platform for emerging talent and a celebration of low-budget filmmaking, each of the 8,000 submissions selected for competition were made on a budget of less than $1 million.
Here’s the full list of awards issued by the festival:
GRAND JURY AWARDS – FEATURES
Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize: Hannah Ha Ha (Dir: Jordan Tetewsky and Joshua Pikovsky)
Honorable Mentions: Ultrainocencia (Dir: Manuel Arija)
Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize: Forget Me Not (Dir: Olivier Bernier)
Honorable Mention: Fury (Dir: Krzysztof Kasior)
Breakouts Feature Grand Jury Prize: Killing the Eunuch KHAN (Dir: Abed Abest)
Honorable Mentions: Retrograde (Dir: Adrian Murray)
Unstoppable Feature Grand Jury Prize: Straighten Up And Fly Right (Dir: Kristen Abate and Steven
Tanenbaum)
Honorable Mentions: Selahy (My Weapon) (Dir: Alaa Zabara)
JURY AWARDS – SHORTS
Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Ratking (Dir: Eric Colonna)
Honorable Mention: See You, Garbage! (Dir: Romain Dumont)
Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize: The Ritual to Beauty (Dir: Shenny de Los Angeles and Maria
Marrone)
Honorable Mention: Walls Cannot Keep Us From Flying (Dir: Jonathan Haff Mehring)
Experimental Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Chameleon (Dir: Ima Iduozee and Jaamil Olawale Kosoko)
Honorable Mention: Compositions for Understanding Relationships (Dir: David De La Fuente)
Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize: I’m Here (Dir: Julia Orlik)
Honorable Mention: Oldboy’s Apples (Dir: Brad Hock)
FESTIVAL WIDE AWARDS
The AGBO Fellowship, presented by Joe and Anthony Russo, Award Winner: Ethan Eng, director of
Therapy Dogs
Slamdance Acting Award: Hannah Lee Thompson of Hannah Ha Ha
Honorable Mention: Batel Moseri of Bracha
George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner: Sasha Levinson, director of Sylvie of the Sunshine
State
CreativeFuture Innovation Award: My Parent, Neal (Dir: Hannah Saidiner)
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Civil Dead (Dir. Clay Tatum)
Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Iron Family (Dir. Patrick Longstreth)
Audience Award for Episodes: The Ember Knight Show: “Getting Mad” (Dir. Bobby McCoy)
