SCAD SAVANNAH FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2026 AUDIENCE AND COMPETITION AWARD WINNERS

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) today announced the award winners for the 29th-annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival. A key stop on the festival circuit leading up to the Academy Awards, the 2026 SCAD Savannah Film Festival screened 162 films, including 57 fiction feature films, 14 documentary feature films, 85 short films, and 7 world premieres and 6 U.S. premieres.

You Can See Everything was this year’s Audience Award Winner, as selected by festival attendees. Directors Nathan Felder & Lance Oppenheim were in attendance for the sold-out screening. Wildwood was the runner-up, with director Travis Knight in attendance. Additionally, La Bola Negra was this year’s International Audience Award Winner. Actor Guitarricadelafuente was in attendance for the screening, where he received the Discovery Award.

Out of over 2,300 submissions, 15 awards were announced from the 95 films chosen to compete in competition categories, which included Fiction Features, Documentary Features, as well as Live Action Shorts, Documentary Shorts, Animated Shorts, Student Live Action, Documentary, and Animated Shorts, all arranged in 13 different themed blocks. 

Professional Competition

• Best Live Action Short—Them That’s Not, dir. Mekhai Lee
• Best Documentary Short—Plant Life, dirs. Brett Marty, Josh Izenberg
• Best Animated Short—9 Million Colors, dir. Bára Anna
• Best Fiction Feature—The Huntress, dir. Suzanne Andrews Correa
• Best Documentary Feature—The Secret Reading Club of Kabul, dirs. Shakiba Adil, Elina Hirvonen
• Best Director, Fiction Feature—Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz, Summer of Three
• Best Directors, Live Action Short—Gus Flind-Henry, George Malcher, A Sisyphean Task

This year’s Best Live Action Short Them That’s Not, Documentary Short Plant Life, and Animated Short 9 Million Colors will each receive a $500 cash prize sponsored by Southern Motors Family.

This year’s Best Fiction Feature The Huntress and Documentary Feature The Secret Reading Club of Kabul will each receive a $1000 cash prize sponsored by Southern Motors Family.

Honorable Mention Jury Awards

The Fiction Feature Jury awarded the Valiant Cinema Award to writer, actor and producer Brock Yurich from Test for courageous storytelling, vulnerable yet bold acting and the determination to share such a unique and important film with audiences.  

The Live Action Short Jury awarded a Jury Award for Excellence in Performance to Callback, dir. Matthew Puccini.

The Documentary Short Jury awarded a Special Jury Award to The Baddest Speechwriter of Them All (dirs. Stephen Curry, Ben Proudfoot)for Illustrative Excellence.

The Documentary Short Jury also awarded The Making of Taylor Square an Honorable Mention for Community Spirit.

The 2026 Documentary Features jury members included Andy Cohen (Producer), Juliet Blake (Film & TV Producer) and June Dowad (Writer/Producer).

The 2026 festival's Fiction Features jury members included Alan Khamoui (Sr. Film Executive of Development, Production and Acquisitions, Amazon MGM Studios), Giulia Prenna (Producer and Int’l Sales Agent), and Seth Fradkoff (MGM).

Katie Spikes Legacy Award Scholarship

Katie Spikes was a senior story editor for CBS 60 Minutes and a beloved friend of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival for many years. After her passing in 2023 the Katie Spikes Legacy Scholarship was created to honor excellence in filmmaking by a SCAD student.

• Award Winner—Nanmoku, dir. Wil Franz (B.F.A., Film & Television, SCAD)

This year’s winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize. The 2026 festival's Katie Spikes Legacy jury members include Alison Owen, Andy Cohen, Juliet Blake, June Dowad, Lynn Hirshfeld and Myra Scheer.

Student Live Action, Doc and Animated Shorts

• Best Student Animation—Stone Lions Don’t Roar, dir. Le Hang Whalen
• Best Student Short—KATTI (unfriend), dir. Kanishka Aggarwal 
• Best Student Documentary Short—Nanmoku, dir. Wil Franz

This year’s Best Student Animation Stone Lions Don’t Roar, the Best Student Documentary Short Nanmoku and Student Live Action ShortKATTI (unfriend) will receive a cash prize of $500 each, sponsored by Southern Motors Family.

Honorable Mention Jury Awards - Student

The Student Shorts Jury awarded With You, dir. Rebecca Floto, a jury award for bold and courageous filmmaking.

The Katie Spikes Jury awarded From the Sound to the Sea, dir. Olivia Jackson a jury award for Journalistic Integrity.

The 2026 festival's Student Shorts jury members included Kaila York (Director), Mike McNamara (Sundance Programmer & Producer) and Sharon Badal (Tribeca Shorts).

The 2026 Animated Shorts jury members included Greg Sorvig (Heartland Film Festival & Indy Shorts), Joshua Beveridge (Sony Imageworks), and Susan Fitzer (WB Animation). 

The 2026 Live Action Short jury members included Darrien Gipson (SAGindie), Sam Davis (Director, The Singers), and Sam Lansky (Journalist).

This year, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival honored Keanu Reeves (Legend of Cinema Award), Paul Bettany (Virtuoso Award), Gemma Chan (Lumiere Award), Emmy Rossum (Outstanding Achievement in Television Award), John Cho and Carrie Coon (Luminary Award), Rosalind Eleazar (Breakthrough Award), Guitarricadelafuente (Discovery Award), Jordan Firstman (Rising Star Director Award), James Gray (Auteur Award), Anthony Ippolito (Breakthrough Award), Kane Parsons (NextGen Director Award), Billie Piper (Marquee Award), Seth Rogen (Spotlight Award), Meghann Fahy (Spotlight in Television Award), Ethan Hawke and Sterlin Harjo (Outstanding Collaboration in Television Award), Helen Mirren (Legend of Entertainment Award), Julianne Moore (Icon Award), Emmy Rossum (Outstanding Achievement in Television Award), and production designer Patrice Vermette (Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award).

Additionally, Entertainment Weekly presented their Breaking Big Awards, which included honorees Adia (Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother), India Amartiefio (Clarissa), Jalen Thomas Brooks (Off Campus) Skyler Gisondo (Primetime), Tom Rhys Harries (Clayface) and Summer H Howell (Carrie).

Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.

About the SCAD Savannah Film Festival

Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.

Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers

SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university’s renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more. Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2026 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more. Visit scad.edu.

About the SCAD School of Film and Acting

With resources that rival Hollywood studios and Broadway theaters, award-winning faculty, professionally run casting offices, and renowned film and television festivals, the SCAD School of Film and Acting prepares students for impactful careers in film, television, and live performance. Students in acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, sound design, and the school’s new music production and vocal performance degree programs work across disciplines on professional-caliber film and TV shoots and stage performances, gaining hands-on experience, production credits, and valuable industry connections before graduation.

The heart of the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the newly completed 11-acre SCAD Film Studios in Savannah, the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in higher education. Designed for professional and student productions, the complex includes purpose-built soundstages and an expansive Hollywood-style backlot with more than 50 façades and practical interiors that can be transformed for different locations and eras. Filmmakers in Savannah also have access to a leading-edge LED volume stage, as well as virtual production, postproduction, and extensive production and costume design facilities. Together with SCAD Film Studios in Atlanta — with its own state-of-the-art spaces, such as an LED volume stage, broadcast studios, and editing facilities — located amid one of the nation’s leading film and television production markets, these resources position students on the same sets and spaces they will lead throughout their careers. At SCAD, every set, stage, and studio is a classroom.

Each fall, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival welcomes celebrated filmmakers, actors, producers, and other industry leaders to Savannah, bringing national and international attention to filmmaking throughout the region and Georgia. During the festival’s weeklong lineup of screenings and panels, SCAD students enjoy myriad opportunities to connect with major stars in front of and behind the camera, including exclusive master classes and Q&A sessions.