The 2024 Austin Film Festival came and went last month, but there are still some accolades to hand out from the eight-day festival. Though the juried prizes have all been passed out, and the special honors have been presented, the festival just announced the winners of the audience prizes. Votes were cast after each screening during the festival’s run from October 24 through 31, with winners being selected in 11 categories. Leading the charge as the winner in the Marquee Feature category was Mark Gill‘s dark fantasy biographical feature Ravens starring Shōgun Emmy nominee Tadanobu Asano.
Ravens starred Asano as legendary Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase and explored the tumultious love story between him and his wife, Yoko (Kumi Takiuchi). Described as a gripping exploration of love and loss, it earned strong reviews during the event with high praise for Asano’s performance as the celebrated artist. In the Narrative Feature category, the award went to the Brandon Sklenar-led Green & Gold which, if the title didn’t give it away, is tied to the NFL team, the Green Bay Packers. Directed by Anders Lindwall, it follows a fourth-generation dairy farmer and his granddaughter who wager the future of their land on the team they love in a last-ditch effort to save their livelihood as more and more small farms continue to close down. Other big winners among the features include the Documentary winner Champions of the Golden Valley. Comedy Vanguard winner The Perfect Club, Dark Matters feature The Fetch, and the Texas Independent Feature The Stones Are Speaking.
On the shorts side of the awards, top honors for narrative filmmaking went to The Cockroach by Mary Pat Bentel which follows a woman trying to navigate the new realities of her life after a body-altering accident. The Austin Film Festival also honors short films created by students, with this year’s winner being Emily Everhard‘s Special Delivery. The film follows an unexpected love story after a foley artist for pornography falls for a porn star during an ADR session. Rounding out the honors were the documentary short I Am Ready, Warden, the animated short Death of James, and the produced digital series Barden & Sarah Start A Pandemic.
The Austin Film Festival Honored Big Names in the Industry
In addition to all the awards handed out to filmmakers and titles in competition, Austin honored a few major names in the industry during its annual awards luncheon. Key among that group was Lucasfilm president and prolific producer Kathleen Kennedy, whose credits span all throughout the Star Wars franchise as well as Jurassic Park, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Adventures of Tintin, and more. The eight-time Oscar nominee was presented the Polly Platt Award for Producing by Knives Out mastermind Rian Johnson, who spoke to her ability to make things happen in an increasingly tumultuous industry:
“I can count on two thumbs, the number of producers who 10-year-old me knew the names of, and they were Frank Marshall and Kathy Kennedy. I didn’t even know at the time what a producer did, but I’m going to cut 10-year-old me a little slack because even today it’s kind of hard to define what a great producer does. The best I can come up with now is a producer is an artist who works with the medium of getting shit done. And having had the rare privilege to actually be in the trenches with Kathy, and work with her as a filmmaker and see how she protects and nurtures and has tough love and generally, facilitates a vision onto the screen by getting shit done, taking it from her being just a name on the screen to realizing why she was on the front of so many of all of our favorite movies. It’s because the best filmmakers in the world wanted to come back and keep working with her and it’s because she’s a great producer who gets shit done.”
Kennedy was one of five special honorees at the festival, joining Shōgun co-creator Rachel Kondo, who won the New Voice Award, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button writer Robin Swicord, who took home the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting, Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D Moore, who won the Outstanding Television Writer Award, and Shōgun‘s other co-creator and Kondo’s husband Justin Marks, who won the Writer’s Writer Award.
More details on the winners and their presenters can be found on the Austin Film Festival website.
When a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village, Lord Yoshii Toranaga discovers secrets that could tip the scales of power and devastate his enemies.
- Release Date
- February 27, 2024
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Seasons
- 1
