Announcing the Slamdance 2023 Award Winners

by Slam Danceon Posted on

 

Slamdance is delighted to announce the winners of the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival. The festival is still available for on-demand streaming through January 29th on the Slamdance Channel.

GRAND JURY AWARDS — FEATURES

Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize: Waiting for the Light to Change (dir. Linh Tran)
Honorable Mention: Where the Road Leads (dir. Nina Ognjanović)

Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize: Starring Jerry as Himself (dir. Law Chen)
Honorable Mention: Silent Love (dir. Mark Kozakiewicz)

Breakouts Feature Grand Jury Prize: The Underbug (dir. Shujaat Saudagar)
Honorable Mention: Onlookers (dir. Kimi Takesue)

Episodes Grand Jury Prize: Palookaville (dir. Theodore Collatos)
Honorable Mention: Off Fairfax (dir. Erica Eng)

GRAND JURY AWARDS — UNSTOPPABLE

Unstoppable Grand Jury Prize: Millstone (dir. Peter Hoffman Kimball)
Honorable Mention: My Eyes Are Up Here (dir. Nathan Morris)

GRAND JURY AWARDS — SHORTS

Narrative Shorts Grand Jury Prize: The Sidewalk Artist (dir. David Velez & Brandon Rivera)
Honorable Mention: Gwendoline (dir Joaquim Bayle)

Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize: The Unicorn in Snowpants Suddenly Ran Off (dir. Philipp Schaeffer)
Honorable Mention: Moomin (dir. Zach Dorn)

Experimental Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Red Threads (dir. Yuchi Ma)
Honorable Mention: Grillz & Mirrors (dir. Michael U. Olowu)

Animated Shorts Grand Jury Prize: Hot Dogs! (dir. Frank Volk)
Honorable Mention: Sliver Cave (dir. Caibei Cai)

FESTIVAL WIDE AWARDS:

The AGBO Fellowship, presented by Joe and Anthony Russo, Award Winner: Tij D’Oyen, director of Lollygag

Slamdance Acting Award: Jerry Hsu for Starring Jerry as Himself

George Starks Spirit of Slamdance Award Winner: Aaron David Harris, director of H-Squad: The Interactive Experience

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: Where the Road Leads (dir. Nina Ognjanović)

Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Starring Jerry as Himself (dir. Law Chen)

Audience Award for Episodes: Honeycomb (dir. Sam Roden)

Audience Award for Unstoppable: American Pot Story: Oaksterdam (dir. Dan Katzir & Ravit Markus)

“Slamdance ‘23 has showcased an incredible array of new independent work that pushes the boundaries of cinematic language while expressing what it means to be alive in today’s world. We celebrate our winners, and crucially, the overall strength of this year’s program that elevates the art of filmmaking,” stated Slamdance president and founder Peter Baxter.

This year’s lineup was chosen from over 7,600 total submissions, 1,522 of which were features. All films selected in the Narrative Features and Documentary Features competition categories are directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million USD – a feature that has been unique to Slamdance since its founding in 1995. The features hail from 13 different countries from around the world with projects from The Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Serbia, Poland, Germany, Laos, India, and the Philippines among others.

 

 

“Slamdance ‘23 has showcased an incredible array of new independent work that pushes the boundaries of cinematic language while expressing what it means to be alive in today’s world. We celebrate our winners, and crucially, the overall strength of this year’s program that elevates the art of filmmaking,” stated Slamdance president and founder Peter Baxter.

This year’s lineup was chosen from over 7,600 total submissions, 1,522 of which were features. All films selected in the Narrative Features and Documentary Features competition categories are directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million USD – a feature that has been unique to Slamdance since its founding in 1995. The features hail from 13 different countries from around the world with projects from The Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Serbia, Poland, Germany, Laos, India, and the Philippines among others.