Well, that was fast!
Sunday marks the end of this year's Seattle International Film Festival, with a closing screening of Call Jane and a party over at MOHAI. The typically three-plus-week festival screened across 11 days this year, adopting a hybrid model with virtual screenings alongside in-person screenings at Seattle theaters.
The festival's end also comes with the announcement of fest winners. SIFF runs two types of competitions: juried competitions, with $5,000 cash prizes (or $2,500 for short films), and the Golden Space Needle Awards, determined by audience members' votes. SIFF says audiences submitted over 20,000 ballots this year.
This year, the stand-out winner is director Zia Mohajerjasbi's Seattle-set Know Your Place, a favorite of Stranger critic Charles Mudede. Know Your Place took home the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film in addition to SIFF's Grand Jury Prize for its New American Cinema Competition. Other big wins include Maryna Er Gorbach's Klondike (the Official Competition winner) and Firouzeh Khosrovani's Radiograph of a Family (the Documentary Competition winner). I was also excited to see that Finlandia's director Horacio Gomez Alcalà took home the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Director.
Peep the full list of winners below:
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Best Film - Know Your Place, directed by Zia Mohajerjasbi (USA)
Best Documentary - The Territory, directed by Alex Pritz (Brazil/Denmark/USA)
Best Short Film - Long Line of Ladies, directed by Reyka Zehtabchi, Shaandiin Tome (USA 2022)
Best Performance - Dale Dickey, A Love Song (USA)
Best Director - Horacio Gomez Alcalà, Finlandia (Spain/Mexico)
Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision - Sweetheart Deal, directed by Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller (USA)
JURIED AWARDS - FEATURES
Official Competition Grand Jury Prize - Klondike | dir. Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine, Turkey)
Official Competition Special Jury Prize - Navalny | dir. Daniel Roher (USA, Russia, Germany)
Official Competition Special Jury Prize - Fire of Love | dir. Sara Dosa (USA, Canada)
Ibero-American Competition Grand Jury Prize - Sublime | dir. Mariano Biasin (Argentina)
Ibero-American Competition Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision - The Sacred Spirit |dir. Chema García Ibarra (Spain/France/Turkey/United Kingdom)
New Directors Competition Grand Jury Prize - Lonely Voices | dir. Andrea Brusa, Marco Scotuzzi (Italy)
New Directors Competition Special Jury Prize - Moneyboys | dir. C.B. Yi (Austria/France/Belgium/Taiwan)
New Directors Competition Special Jury Prize - Tug of War | dir. Amil Shivji (Tanzania/South Africa/Germany/Qatar)
New American Cinema Competition Grand Jury Prize - Know Your Place | dir. Zia Mohajerjasbi (USA)
Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize - Radiograph of a Family | dir. Firouzeh Khosrovani (Iran/Norway/Switzerland)
Documentary Competition Special Jury Prize for Cinematography - Dark Red Forest | dir. Jin Huaqing (China)
JURIED AWARDS - SHORTS
FutureWave Shorts Wavemaker Award - She | dir. Eva Li
Short Film Live Action Grand Jury Prize - Rachels Don't Run | dir. Joanny Causse
Short Film Live Action Special Jury Prize - El Carrito | dir. Zahida Pirani
Short Film Live Action Special Jury Prize - Tank Fairy | dir. Erich Rettstadt
Short Film Documentary Grand Jury Prize - Long Line of Ladies | dir. Rayka Zehtabchi, Shaandiin Tome
Short Film Animation Grand Jury Prize - Love, Dad | dir. Diana Cam Van Nguyen
Short Film Animation Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Directing - Wet | dir. Marianne Bergeonneau, Lauriane Montppert, Mélina Mandon, Cloé Peyrebrune, Elvira Taussac
