MOVIEMAKER
Santa Fe International Film Festival 2024 Winners Include Waltzing Matilda and The Strike
Main Image: A still from Waltzing Matilda directed by Petr Slavík courtesy of SFIFF
The Santa Fe International Film Festival has announced the winners of this year’s juried awards, including Petr Slavík’s Waltzing Matilda for best narrative feature and JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey’s The Strike for best documentary feature.
This year marks the first time the winners of best animated short, best narrative short, and best documentary short categories are eligible for Oscar submission. The winners of those categories were LUKi and the Lights directed by Toby Cochran, Camping in Paradise directed by Eirik Tveiten, and The Quilters directed by Jenifer McShane respectively.
The 16th annual festival took place from Oct. 16-20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, offering over $100,000 in cash and prizes for winners. By winning the narrative feature award presented by Panavision, Waltzing Matilda director Petr Slavík wins a camera package valued at $60,000 from Panavision, a post-production package from Light Iron valued at $30,000, and a $1,000 cash prize from the Santa Fe Film Institute.
Best documentary feature winners JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey of The Strike received a $1,000 cash prize, while best narrative short winner Camping in Paradise by Eirik Tveiten received a $15,000 camera package from Panavision and a $500 cash prize. Additional awards include a $500 cash prizes from the Santa Fe Film Institute for the following categories: best documentary short (“The Quilters” by Jenifer McShane); best New Mexico short (“Where the Earth Meets the Sky” directed by Rafael Salazar Moreno), and best short by an Indigenous filmmaker (“First Horse” directed by Awanui Simich-Pene).
The 2024 Santa Fe International Film Festival opened with Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson and closed with Amber Sealey’s Out of My Mind. Over five days, the festival showed a selection of 184 films, including 42 narrative features, 24 documentaries, and 118 short films.
This year the festival presented its Lifetime Achievement Award for exceptional contributions to film and television to Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, who was present during the festival. Other guests included actress Ali MacGraw, director Amber Sealey, producer Christopher Guest, actor Keith Carradine, and actress Cassidy Freeman.
Other highlights included Better Man, a documentary about Robbie Williams directed by Michael Gracey; Bird by Andrea Arnold, starring Barry Keoghan; Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel; Nightbitch, directed by Marielle Heller and starring Amy Adams; A Real Pain, directed by Jesse Eisenberg who stars alongside Kieran Culkin; The Room Next Door, directed by Pedro Almodóvar with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton; September 5, directed by Tim Fehlbaum, featuring John Magaro and Peter Sarsgaard; and Unstoppable, directed by William Goldenberg, starring Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, and Michael Peña.
See the full list of winners below.
2024 Santa Fe International Film Festival Winners
Best Narrative Feature Jury Award presented by Panavision
Waltzing Matilda directed by Petr Slavík
Special Jury Award Narrative Feature
The Moon is Upside Down directed by Loren Carla Taylor
Best Documentary Feature Jury Award
The Strike directed by JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey
Special Jury Award Documentary Feature
Zurawski v. Texas directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault
Special Jury Award Documentary Feature
Between Goodbyes directed by Jota Mun
Academy Award® Qualifying Narrative Short Jury Award presented by Panavision
Camping in Paradise directed by Eirik Tveiten
Academy Award® Qualifying Documentary Short Jury Award
The Quilters directed by Jenifer McShane
Academy Award® Qualifying Animated Short Jury Award
LUKi and the Lights directed by Toby Cochran
Special Jury Award Narrative Short
Buscando Alma directed by Melissa Fisher
Special Jury Award Documentary Short
A Body Called Life directed by Spencer MacDonald
Special Jury Award Animated Short
One Happy Customer directed by WATTS
Experimental Short Jury Award
Make Me a Pizza directed by Talia Shea Levin
Best New Mexico Feature Jury Award
Sunlight directed by Nina Conti
Best New Mexico Short Jury Award
Where the Earth Meets the Sky directed by Rafael Salazar Moreno
Best Short by an Indigenous Director Jury Award
First Horse directed by Awanui Simich-Pene
Audience Choice Best Narrative Feature
The Seed of the Sacred Fig directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
Audience Choice Best Documentary Feature
Mollie’s Pack directed by Thomas Winston
Audience Choice Best Short
Jane Austen’s Period Drama directed by Julia Aks, Steve Pinder
BY Margeaux Sippell