Following a gala closing night time celebration that includes Steve Buscemi and his movie “The Listener,” the 2024 Sarasota Movie Competition has introduced its awards — with a number of outstanding indies taking the highest prizes. This twenty sixth version of the Florida pageant celebrating unbiased movie gave the Narrative Function Jury Prize to Josh Margolin’s Sundance breakout “Thelma,” starring June Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree. “Sugarcane” gained the Documentary Function Jury Prize.
Talking for the narrative characteristic jury, filmmaker Alex Hedison, in awarding the prize to “Thelma,” stated the group discovered the film to have fun “what Hollywood cinema so sometimes does: age. The extraordinary performances by June Squib and Richard Roundtree are on the middle of ‘Thelma,’ surrounded by a wonderful supporting solid who function a surrogate for the viewers in reminding them of the importance of residing their finest lives with the sort of motion and journey life affords us if we stay open to it — at all ages.” The movie is about to be launched June 21 by Magnolia Footage.
Veteran movie government and former president of IMAX Leisure Megan Colligan, Warner Bros. Footage PR chief Katie Martin Kelley, and legendary “Do the Proper Factor,” “Malcolm X,” and “Mars Assaults!” manufacturing designer Wynn Thomas rounded out the narrative characteristic jury.
Hedison herself additionally gained an award: The Documentary Brief Competitors award for her movie “Alok,” about LGBT influencer Alok Vaid-Menon, which she had additionally delivered to Sundance earlier this 12 months, together with producer Jodie Foster. Hedison spoke at IndieWire’s annual Sundance Chili Celebration. Her movie stands alongside Shawn Butcher’s “Classes,” which gained Sarasota’s Finest Narrative Brief, whereas Volker Schlecht’s “The Ready” gained Finest Worldwide Brief.
The Documentary Function Jury, of which I used to be an element — alongside producer and Olive Footage co-founder Wren Arthur, NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans, and DOC NYC creative director Jaie Laplante — awarded our high prize to “Sugarcane,” which was additionally within the U.S. Documentary Competitors at Sundance this 12 months. The movie, directed by Julian Courageous NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is about how the abuse First Nations college students at a Catholic-run boarding college in British Columbia suffered has affected their neighborhood throughout generations. In presenting the prize, I stated, “The filmmakers don’t lose sight of the extraordinary tradition of this neighborhood and stability main historic truths with profoundly intimate moments.” The movie was acquired by Nationwide Geographic Documentary Movies in February, appeared IndieWire’s critics survey of one of the best documentaries at Sundance, and appears an apparent awards contender within the 12 months forward.
The Documentary Function Jury additionally gave a Particular Point out to Sundance award-winner “Porcelain Battle,” which nonetheless doesn’t but have distribution. The Sarasota Movie Competition isn’t a gross sales pageant, but it surely is among the most important post-Sundance stops for movies nonetheless looking for distribution. The nice and cozy viewers reception to as-yet undistributed movies reminiscent of “Porcelain Battle,” “A Home Is Not a Disco,” and Ethan Berger’s fraternity-hazing thriller “The Line” can ship a sign to distributors that audiences outdoors the Sundance, SXSW, or Tribeca crowds truly do await these movies. Underneath the management of president Mark Famiglio, one of many biggest advocates for movie on the Gulf Coast, the Sarasota Movie Competition has additionally turn out to be probably the most curatorially sturdy festivals within the southeastern U.S. Final 12 months, the narrative jury awarded its high prize to Rebecca Zlatowski’s “Different Individuals’s Youngsters” — an important film that in any other case struggled to interrupt by, regardless of having a Venice premiere the 12 months earlier than.
The Sarasota Movie Competition additionally likes to place a highlight on native expertise and filmmakers, nevertheless. That’s why “Into the Highlight: The Jake Ilardi Story,” about 2021 Olympian and skateboarder Ilardi, who grew up close by, was within the Documentary Function competitors — it ended up profitable the Native Viewers Award. (Daybreak Porter’s Sundance hit, “Luther: By no means Too A lot,” gained the Trade Viewers Award.)
Likewise, Sarasota-born “Euphoria” and “Do Revenge” star Austin Abrams gained the Rising Star Award on the pageant for his startling position in Berger’s “The Line” — a lot of his family and friends had been in attendance on the screening.
This pageant has achieved one thing distinctive: It’s achieved each a worldwide and a neighborhood focus. Learn on for the total record of 2024 Sarasota Movie Competition award winners beneath.
Jury Awards
Narrative Function Competitors Winner
THELMA
Director: Josh Margolin
Documentary Function Competitors Winner
SUGARCANE
Administrators: Emily Kassie & Julian Courageous NoiseCat
Documentary Function Jury Particular Point out
PORCELAIN WAR
Administrators: Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev
Impartial Visions Competitors Winner
ART THIEF
Director: Arthur Egeli
Narrative Brief Competitors Winner
LESSONS
Director: Shawn Butcher
Documentary Brief Competitors Winner
ALOK
Director: Alex Hedison
Worldwide Brief Competitors Winner
THE WAITING
Director: Volker Schlecht
Viewers Awards
Native Viewers Award Winner
INTO THE SPOTLIGHT: THE JAKE ILARDI STORY
Director: Liam Jordan
Trade Viewers Award Winner
LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH
Director: Daybreak Porter
