The 28th Slamdance Film Festival announced its winners on Friday, with the Grand Jury Awards going to ‘Hannah Ha Ha’ for Narrative Feature, ‘Forget Me Not’ for Documentary Feature, ‘Killing the Eunuch KHAN’ for Feature breakout footage and “Straighten Up and Fly Right” for unstoppable functionality.
The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to “The Civil Dead,” while “Iron Family” won 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 each of our filmmakers who have together created a showcase that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in storytelling,” said Slamdance President and Co-Founder Peter Baxter. “The future of cinema depends on these unique voices that defy simple classification and transcend analysis. The key to sustaining this endeavor is accessibility and major growth in our online audience who tuned in to the new Slamdance channel.
Four festival-wide awards were also presented this year, including the AGBO Fellowship, presented by Slamdance alumni and “Avengers” directors Joe and Anthony Russo. For directing “Therapy Dogs,” Ethan Eng will receive the $25,000 prize plus mentorship from the Russo Brothers.
The festival’s best performance award went to Hannah Lee Thompson of “Hannah Ha Ha”, with an honorable mention for Batel Moseri of “Bracha”. The George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award, given to the filmmaker who best embodies the spirit of Slamdance, went to Sasha Levinson, director of “Sylvie of the Sunshine State.” Finally, Hannah Saidine won the CreativeFuture Innovation Award for the animated film “My Parent Neal”.
Founded in 1995 in rebellion against its neighboring festival Sundance, the 28th edition of Slamdance takes place virtually from January 27 to February 6. This year’s lineup included 23 premieres and showcased the talents of filmmakers from around the world. As a platform for emerging talent and a celebration of low-budget cinema, each of the 8,000 entries selected for the competition was made on a budget of less than $1 million.
Here is the complete list of prizes awarded by the festival:
GRAND JURY AWARD – FEATURES
Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature Film: Hannah Ha Ha (Dir: Jordan Tetewsky and Joshua Pikovsky)
Honorable mentions: Ultrainocencia (Dir: Manuel Arija)
Grand Jury Prize Documentary Feature: 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 Film Grand Jury Prize: Straighten Up And Fly Right (Director: Kristen Abate and Steven
Tanenbaum)
Honorable Mentions: Selahy (My Weapon) (Dir: Alaa Zabara)
JURY PRIZE – SHORTS
Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Short Films: Ratking (Dir: Eric Colonna)
Honorable mention: see you soon, Garbage! (Dir: Romain Dumont)
Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short Film: The Ritual to Beauty (Director: Shenny de Los Angeles and Maria
Brown)
Honorable Mention: Walls Can’t Stop Us From Flying (Dir: Jonathan Haff Mehring)
Grand Jury Prize for Experimental Short Films: Chameleon (Dir: Ima Iduozee and Jaamil Olawale Kosoko)
Honorable Mention: Compositions for Understanding Relationships (Dir: David De La Fuente)
Grand Jury Prize for Animated Short Films: 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 de 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 AWARD
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” (directed by Bobby McCoy)
