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| Swallowed Photo: Blue Finch Film Releasing |
The jury at Newfest today gave the prize for Best US Narrative Feature to Carter Smith's imaginative drug-smuggling fable Swallowed, praising its "transgressive boldness, conceptual and tonal uniqueness and complex, layered approach to queer storytelling, characters and aesthetic." It's a big award for a small film which also impressed audiences at the Fantasia International Film Festival, Frightfest and Fantastic Fest earlier this year, and whose director told us that what he really wants is simply to see more queer stories told in scary movies.
Winning the Best Documentary award at the New York City-based festival was Uýra - The Rising Forest, a portrait of a Brazilian artist and ecologist who draws on her indigenous roots to find creative ways of fighting back against the destruction of the natural environment. "This is her film, she guided us. We just offered the filmmaking tools that we have access to, and she guided us to create this story," director Juliana Curi told us.
Those award winners in full:-
U.S. Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize
Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize
International Feature Grand Jury Prize
New York Short Grand Jury Prize
- How Not To Date While Trans
2022 Breakthrough Queer Visionary Award
- Elegance Bratton, [film id-41323]The Inspection[/film]
Special Mentions
- Unidentified Objects - Ensemble Cast in US Narrative Fiction
- The First Fallen - Writer/Director in International Feature
- Black As U R - Documentary Feature
- Monsieur Le Butch - New York Shorts
Black Filmmakers Initiative Winners
- Micheal Rice, Black As U R - Chevrolet Changemaker Award for a Black LGBTQ+ Director
- Karina Dandashi, Dress Up - NewFext x NYWIFT Emerging Filmmaker Award
- Michael Donte Jemison (The Spirit God Gave Us), Rashaad Newsome (Build Or Destroy) and Olive Nwosu (Egungun/Masquerade) - Blackstone Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award
