SXSW on Monday shelp that Matthew Shear’s Fantasy Life, Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal’s reteam The Accountant 2 and Paige Bethmann’s write downary Remaining Native were among the huge prosperners of the 32nd annual festival’s Audience Awards.
The novels of the honors atraverse the Austin fest’s competition, narrative, write downary, lows, TV and XR Experience sidebars comes after the 2025 edition uncovered its juried awards last week, with honors going to Amy Wang‘s thriller Slanted for Best Narrative Feature among others.
Fantasy Life, Shear’s feature writing and honestorial debut, won the marquee Narrative Feature Audience Award. It stars Shear as a man who suffers a panic aggression and stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist’s three magnificentdaughters, where he begins to drop for the girls’ mother, joined by Amanda Peete. Peete earlier won a exceptional jury prize for acting.
The Headliners section audience prize went to The Accountant 2, which gets honestor Gavin O’Conner and stars Affleck and Bernthal back for the sequel to the thriller almost a decade in the making.
Other audience prosperners went to Remaining Native, about a solo runner at a high school with no coach on the Yerington Paiute reservation in Northwest Nevada who labors to be needs seen by his dream school, the University of Oregon. In the TV categories, prosperners retaind Spy High and Mix Tape.
Here’s the brimming catalog of 2025 Audience Award prosperners:
Feature Film Program
HEADLINER
Audience Award Winner: The Accountant 2
Director: Gavin O’Connor, Producers: Ben Affleck, Lynette Howell Taylor, Mark Williams, Screenauthorr: Bill Dubuque
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Fantasy Life
Director/Screenauthorr: Matthew Shear, Producers: Charlie Alderman, Chris Dodds, Phil Keefe, Amanda Peet, Emily McCann Lesser, David Bernon, Sam Stardyr
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Remaining Native
Director: Paige Bethmann, Producers: Jessica Epstein, Paige Bethmann, Judd Ehrlich
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: The Baltimorons
Director: Jay Duplass, Producers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Shuli Harel, David Bonnett Jr., Michael Strassner, Drew Langer, Screenauthorrs: Jay Duplass, Michael Strassner
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Luv Ya, Bum!
Directors: Sam Wainwright Douglas, David Hartstein, Producers: Paul Jensen, Vance Howard, Screenauthorr: Andrew Miller
MIDNIGHTER
Audience Award Winner: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Director: Matt Johnson, Producers: Matthew Miller, Matt Greyson, Screenauthorrs: Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol
VISIONS
Audience Award Winner: Gpresent Boy
Director: Rodney Ascher, Producers: Elika Portnoy, Ryan Bartecki, Gary Levinsohn, Billy Hines
GLOBAL
Audience Award Winner: Corina
Director: Urzula Barba Hopfner, Producers: Carlos Hernández, Iván López- Barba, Urzula Barba, Screenauthorrs: Urzula Barba Hopfner, Samuel Sosa
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Audience Award Winner: Selena y Los Dinos
Director: Isabel Castro, Producers: Julie Gelderlyman, Christopher Clements, J. Daniel Torres, David Binformageman, Simran A. Singh
FESTIVAL FAVORITE
Audience Award Winner: Deaf Plivent Now!
Directors: Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim, Producers: Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim, Amanda Rohlke, Jonathan King, Michael Harte
Short Film Program
NARRATIVE SHORT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Ben’s Sister
Director/Screenauthorr: Emma Weinswig, Producers: Will Noyce, Emma Weinswig, Shane Bagwell, Chelsea Eisen
DOCUMENTARY SHORT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Armed only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Directors: Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud, Producers: Juan Arredondo, Jon Alpert, Christof Putzel, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Tina Nguyen, Jeff Newton, Mami Kuwano Renaud, Naomi Mizoguchi, Tami Alpert
ANIMATED SHORT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Retirement Plan
Director: John Kelly, Screenauthorrs: John Kelly, Tara Lawall, Producers: Julie Murnaghan, Andrew Freedman
MIDNIGHT SHORT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Lurk
Directors: Mairin Hart, Josh Wallace Kerrigan, Screenauthorr: Josh Wallace Kerrigan, Producers: Mairin Hart, Josh Wallace Kerrigan, Devin Das, Greg Cohen, John Nodorft
TEXAS SHORT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Sweetbriar
Director/Screenauthorr: Danny Rivera, Producer: MK Goss
MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: A$AP Rocky – ‘Tailor Swif’
Directors/Screenauthorrs: Vania Heymann, Gal Muggia
TV Program
TV PREMIERE
Audience Award Winner: Spy High
Director: Jody McVeigh-Schultz, Producers: Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Archie Gips, Aliza Rosen, Jody McVeigh-Schultz, David Wfinishell
TV SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Mix Tape
Director: Lucy Gaffy, Producers: Aoife O’Sullivan, Tristan Orpen Lynch, Angie Fielder, Polly Staniford, Screenauthorr: Jo Spain
INDEPENDENT TV PILOT COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Bulldozer
Showrunner/Screenauthorr: Joanna Leeds, Director: Andrew Leeds, Producers: Joanna Leeds, Andrew Leeds, Rhett Reese, Caleb Reese, Michael Day
XR Experience
XR EXPERIENCE COMPETITION
Audience Award Winner: Face Jumping
Directors: Danny Cannizzaro, Samantha Gorman, Producers: Yuxin Gao, J Noland, Screenauthorr: Samantha Gorman
XR EXPERIENCE SPOTLIGHT
Audience Award Winner: Resolution: A Cinephonic Rhapsody for the Soul
Directors: Scott Berman, Ryan Hartsell, Producer/Screenauthorr: Scott Berman
