Seattle Film Festival: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ Wins Best Doc Audience Award

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville’s documentary about the late children’s entertainer Fred Rogers, on Sunday received the audience award for best documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival. Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, about a teen trying to survive her last year before high school, was voted best film as the festival handed out its 2018 Golden Space Needle Audience and Competition Awards. The pic’s star Elsie Fisher was chosen as best actress, as well. 

During the course of the 25-day event, which began May 17, SIFF presented more than 400 feature-length and short films from 90 countries. Ethan Hawke, who brought his new film Blaze, was presented with the festival’s outstanding achievement award in cinema.

Muayad Alayan’s The Reports on Sarah and Saleem took home the Grand Jury Prize among the juried awards, while Laura Nix’s Inventing Tomorrow won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary.

A complete list of winners follows.

2018 GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD WINNERS

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST FILM
Eighth Grade, directed by Bo Burnham (USA 2018)
First runner-up: The Last Suit, directed by Pablo Solarz (Argentina/Poland/Spain/France/Germany 2017)
Second runner-up: Champions, directed by Javier Fesser (Spain 2018)
Third runner-up: C’est la vie!, directed by Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano (France/Canada/Belgium 2017)
Fourth runner-up: Supa Modo, directed by Likarion Wainaina (Kenya/Germany 2018)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST DOCUMENTARY
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, directed by Morgan Neville (USA 2018)
First runner-up: Pick of the Litter, directed by Don Hardy Jr., Dana Nachman (USA 2017)
Second runner-up: Return to Mount Kennedy, directed by Eric Becker (USA 2018)
Third runner-up: The Most Dangerous Year, directed by Vlada Knowlton (USA 2018)
Fourth runner-up: The Russian Five, directed by Joshua Riehl (USA 2018)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST DIRECTOR
Gustav Möller, The Guilty (Denmark 2018)
First runner-up: Pablo Solarz, The Last Suit (Argentina/Poland/Spain/France/Germany 2017)
Second runner-up: Megan Griffiths, Sadie (USA 2018)
Third runner-up: Debra Granik, Leave No Trace (USA 2018)
Fourth runner-up: Albert Dupontel, See You Up There (France 2017)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST ACTOR
Miguel Ángel Solá, The Last Suit (Argentina/Poland/Spain/France/Germany 2017)
First runner-up: Jakob Cedergren, The Guilty (Denmark 2018)
Second runner-up: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed (USA 2017)
Third runner-up: Jim Cummings, Thunder Road (USA 2018)
Fourth runner-up: Ben Foster, Leave No Trace (USA 2018)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST ACTRESS
Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade (USA 2018)
First runner-up: Rhaechyl Walker, My Name is Myeisha (USA 2018)
Second runner-up: Sophia Mitri Schloss, Sadie (USA 2018)
Third runner-up: Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Leave No Trace (USA 2018)
Fourth runner-up: Ana Brun, The Heiresses (Paraguay/Uruguay/Germany/Brazil/Norway/France 2018)

GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARD – BEST SHORT FILM
Emergency, directed by Carey Williams (USA 2017)
First runner-up: About the Birds and the Bees, directed by J.J. Vanhanen (Finland 2017)
Second runner-up: Wishing Box, directed by Wenli Zhang, Nan Li (USA 2017)
Third runner-up: Cats Cradle, directed by Jonathan Napolitano (USA 2018)
Fourth runner-up: Wave, directed by Benjamin Cleary, TJ O’Grady Peyton (Ireland 2017)

LENA SHARPE AWARD FOR PERSISTENCE OF VISION
Dana Nachman, Pick of the Litter(USA 2017)

SIFF 2018 COMPETITION AWARDS

GRAND JURY PRIZE
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, directed by Muayad Alayan, (Palestine/Netherlands/Germany/Mexico 2018)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
The Heiresses, directed by Marcelo Martinessi (Paraguay/Uruguay/Germany/Brazil/Norway/France 2018)

SIFF 2018 IBERO-AMERICAN COMPETITION

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Rust, directed by Aly Muritiba (Brazil 2018)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
Rush Hour, directed by Luciana Kaplan (Mexico 2017)

SIFF 2018 NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Dead Pigs, directed by Cathy Yan (China/USA 2018)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
Scary Mother, directed by Ana Urushadze (Georgia/Estonia 2017)

SIFF 2018 NEW AMERICAN CINEMA COMPETITION

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Thunder Road, directed by Jim Cummings (USA 2018)

SIFF 2018 DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Inventing Tomorrow, directed by Laura Nix (USA 2018)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
Afghan Cycles, directed by Sarah Menzies (USA/France/Afghanistan 2018)

SIFF 2018 YOUTH JURY FEATURES & FUTUREWAVE SHORTS AWARDS

YOUTH JURY PRIZE FOR BEST FILMS4FAMILIES FEATURE
Zoo, directed by Colin McIvor (Ireland 2017)

YOUTH JURY PRIZE FOR BEST FUTUREWAVE FEATURE
My Name Is Myeisha, directed by Gus Krieger (USA 2018)

WAVEMAKER AWARD (GRAND PRIZE)
iRony, directed by Radheya Jegatheva (Australia 2017)

PRODIGY CAMP SCHOLARSHIP
Roommate, directed by Jinho Rhee (USA 2017)

FUTUREWAVE SHORTS AUDIENCE AWARD
iRony, directed by Radheya Jegatheva (Australia 2017)

SIFF 2018 SHORT FILM JURY AWARDS

LIVE ACTION

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Caroline, directed by Celine Held, Logan George (USA 2017)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
Creme de Menthe, directed by Jean-Marc E. Roy & Philippe David Gagné (Canada 2017)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
The Victory of Charity, directed by Albert Meisl (Austria 2017)

DOCUMENTARY

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Juck [Thrust], directed by Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira (Sweden 2018) 

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
The Driver Is Red, directed by Randall Christopher (USA 2017)

ANIMATION

GRAND JURY PRIZE
Between the Lines, directed by Maria Koneva (Russia 2017)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
The Driver Is Red, directed by Randall Christopher (USA 2017)

SIFF 2018 CHINA STARS AWARDS

CHINA STARS BEST FILM AWARD
The Taste of Betel Nut, directed by Jia Hu, produced by Wei Sun (China 2017)

CHINA STARS BEST FIRST FILM
Dead Pigs, directed by Cathy Yan (China/USA 2018)

CHINA STARS BEST NEW TALENT
Girls Always Happy, directed by Mingming Yang (China 2018)