Scuttled SXSW goes ahead with film awards

South by Southwest was one of the first major gatherings canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.

NEW YORK » South by Southwest, the sprawling Austin, Texas, conference and festival, was one of the first major gatherings canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. But its organizers, eager to lend a hand to the movies that had been set to premiere at SXSW, on Tuesday went ahead with its film awards.

The announcement Tuesday made for a strange anomaly: prizes handed out, virtually, for a film festival that never happened.

But SXSW and its film director, Janet Pierson, wanted to salvage some of the lost exposure and buzz that are so vital for independent films in securing distribution or stoking word of mouth.

Most of the high-profile films that had been set to debut at SXSW have reshuffled their release plans. (Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island,” with Pete Davidson, had been set to open SXSW.) But the festival was able to proceed with awards for its juried competitions, with self-isolating jurors watching films on screening links and making selections by teleconference.

The grand jury prize for narrative feature went to Cooper Raiff’s “S—-house,” a micro-budget coming-of-age comedy about a college freshman struggling with the transition. The 22-year-old Raiff wrote, directed, co-edited and stars in the movie. The jurors called it “refreshing and winningly sincere.”

Best documentary feature went to Danish director Katrine Philp’s “An Elephant in the Room,” which tracks a group of kids who have lost family members and who are attending a grief counseling center in New Jersey. The category’s jury called the film heartbreaking, but also “inspiring, uplifting and — especially in these troubled times — essential.”

Flyers advertising comedy on a light pole on Sixth Street during South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, in 2016.