{"id":34961,"date":"2025-11-04T16:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/34961\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:26:08","slug":"what-won-at-the-2025-austin-film-festival-here-are-the-audience-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/34961\/","title":{"rendered":"What won at the 2025 Austin Film Festival? Here are the audience picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Austin Film Festival wrapped up its 32nd year with a big reminder of why storytelling still hits home \u2014 whether it\u2019s on the big screen, in your headphones or streamed between bites of breakfast tacos. This year\u2019s lineup included 180 films \u2014 21 were world premieres \u2014 and drew more than 35,000 attendees who came ready to watch, discuss and vote. After more than 25,000 ballots, the 2025 Audience Award winners are here.<\/p>\n

At the top of the list? \u201cThe Boy From St.\u00a0Croix,\u201d directed by Scott Duncan \u2014 a heartfelt look at basketball legend Tim Duncan, of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u00a0as he opens up about his career, legacy and deep roots in his island home.<\/p>\n

For narrative feature, \u201cAmerican Baby\u201d took home the win. Written by Tanya\u00a0Leonova and Ellen Rodnianski,\u00a0who also directed, the film follows Oli, a pregnant teen in small-town Texas, trying to track down her missing boyfriend while facing judgment from her community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the documentary side, \u201cStronger Than You Think\u201d proved to be exactly that. The film follows Ali\u00a0Truwit, a swimmer who lost her leg in a shark attack and set her sights on the 2024 U.S.\u00a0Paralympic team \u2014 one year later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comedy fans got a two-for-one deal this year, with \u201cCrystal Cross\u201d and \u201cYesterday Island\u201d tying for Comedy Vanguard Feature. \u201cCrystal Cross\u201d pairs a suicidal dad and a Christian pop singer on a chaotic road trip, while \u201cYesterday Island\u201d sends a failed writer into a Subantarctic nightmare after a single midnight phone call.<\/p>\n

The Dark Matters feature winner, \u201cSacrificios,\u201d from Mauricio Chernovetzky, tells a story about grief, the ocean and the dangerous temptation to undo loss.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, \u201cValentina\u201d snagged Texas independent feature. Directed by Tatti Ribeiro, it\u2019s a funny and relatable story about one woman\u2019s struggle with bureaucracy at the El Paso-Ju\u00e1rez\u00a0border.<\/p>\n

Short film winners packed just as much heart. \u201cMore Than Dust,\u201d\u00a0 about a single mom confronting mortality, and \u201cUncle Johnny,\u201d following a girl and her neurodivergent uncle on a bittersweet bowling trip both won in the Narrative Short category. “Recess,” written and directed by Jan Saczek, won Narrative Student Short for its story about a young teacher who accidentally sends a nude photo to one of her students.<\/p>\n

Other standouts included \u201cThe Night Herons,\u201d a documentary about a Houston relay team running 200 miles through Texas, and \u201cBeyond Measure,\u201d an animated short about a man literally shrinking while his relationship grows in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n

And rounding things out with a laugh \u00a0\u2014 and a little blasphemy \u2014 \u201cBetsy (expletive) Ross,\u201d the \u201cuntrue story of America\u2019s greatest sew job,\u201d took home produced digital series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Austin Film Festival wrapped up its 32nd year with a big reminder of why storytelling still hits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[22070,132,14001,134,133,1223,1224,22069,727,577,1636,5570,17643,1637],"class_list":["post-34961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-animated-films","tag-austin","tag-austin-film-festival","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-texas","tag-austin-things-to-do","tag-drama-films","tag-festival","tag-festivals","tag-film","tag-filmmakers","tag-movie-theatres","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}