The 2025 Sarasota Movie Pageant has introduced its winners, and one movie particularly will draw consideration for having screened to a lot acclaim on this brilliant pink county, finally profitable the highest documentary prize: Kim A. Snyder’s “The Librarians,” a movie that’s sounding the alarm strongly about right-wing assaults on free speech, gained Finest Documentary Function, after screening at New Faculty, a college itself subjected to a right-wing takeover and assaults on free speech.
The win for “The Librarians” caps one other version of the pageant identified for its robust curation (largely as a result of senior programmer Brian Gordon), that brings to Florida’s Gulf Coast titles from Sundance, Cannes, Palm Springs, Mill Valley, and extra.
The documentary jury, comprised of freelance journalist Addie Morfoot, Affect Companions co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, and “Lovers” director Taylor McFadden additionally awarded a Particular Jury Point out to Sasha Wortzel’s “River of Grass,” an environmentally-focused documentary in regards to the Everglades.
The narrative jury, of which this author was a component, alongside Submarine founder Josh Braun, documentarian Jill Campbell, and “Godfather of Harlem” author Michael Panes, gave the Finest Narrative Function prize to Ricardo de Montreuil’s Peruvian food-porn triumph “Mistura.” We additionally awarded a Particular Jury Point out to David Fortune’s Atlanta-set “Colour E book,” a couple of Black father coping with the grief over the passing of his spouse and making an attempt to be the perfect dad he can to his son with Down Syndrome.
Attendees of the pageant are nonetheless pondering probably the most about a rare efficiency Denver-based musician Nathaniel Rateliff gave following a screening of his companion Taylor McFadden’s movie “Lovers” because the closing evening choice (this author moderated the post-screening Q&A). It’s a tribute to how music may help energy and maintain a group, one which comes collectively following the loss of life of considered one of their very own, who took his personal life.
The day earlier than that extraordinary ultimate screening and efficiency, awards had been handed out in-person to Concord Korine, who gained the Trailblazer Award; Chris Brancato (“Narcos,” “Godfather of Harlem”) who gained the Innovation in Tv Award; Rome Flynn, who stars in “Godfather of Harlem” Season 4, as Frank Lucas (memorably performed by Denzel Washington in “American Gangster”), obtained the Rising Star Award.
Kayci Lacob’s “E book of Jobs” gained the Unbiased Visions competitors. Ian Edward Meir’s “Tigers of the Sky” was the Documentary Quick Competitors winner, and Nya Chambless gained the Narrative Quick Competitors for her “My Guardian Angel.” Chambless, a freshman in highschool, gained everybody’s hearts along with her completed filmmaking in regards to the loss of life of her finest buddy from most cancers. Her father, Jerry Chambless, the proprietor of Sarasota-based Illum Productions, appeared on my “Filming in Florida” panel over the weekend.
The Narrative Viewers Award went to Jessica Palud’s Maria Schneider biopic “Being Maria,” starring “Mickey 17” breakout Anamaria Vartolomei. And the Documentary Viewers Award went to Miles Larsen’s “The Mild They Solid” about eight incarcerated Sarasota males readjusting to life after jail.
The ten-day pageant was energetic from begin to end, with a hoard of teenage boys swarming Korine for his autograph — one fan was dressed like Matthew McConaughey in “The Seaside Bum,” one other offered him with a skeletal effigy that he hopes Korine will place in considered one of his movies, whereas one other stated “I don’t normally fuck with movie, however you’re my fucking hero” — Submarine founder Josh Braun enjoying the bongos on the ever-wild President’s Dinner hosted by pageant overlord Mark Famiglio, an look from trailblazing mannequin Rishumba Williams, and eventually Rateliff’s efficiency of a music he wrote for “Lovers” to finish the fest.
“The Librarians” profitable the Finest Documentary Function prize and being greeted with a heat reception at New Faculty is perhaps the largest newsmaking occasion of the fest, nonetheless. New Faculty, lengthy a liberal bastion and some of the LGBTQ-friendly universities in Florida, was subjected to a right-wing takeover spearheaded by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023.
Snyder’s movie “The Librarians” is about pushing again on ebook bannings and different right-wing strikes to curtail free speech, together with the firing, two years in the past, of a librarian who labored at New Faculty. Its Sarasota premiere at New Faculty is a vital second of pushing again on that authorities overreach and means that precise free speech could be attainable at New Faculty within the not-distant future, not only a sure sort of government-sanctioned speech.
“The Librarians” director Snyder instructed IndieWire on the pageant that having the ability to display her movie at a school the place such a battle had taken place — in Sarasota, which is intently linked to the Mothers for Liberty group proven within the movie — was critically essential.
“It’s actually one of many major issues that compelled me to come back to Sarasota,” Snyder stated. “It is a place that has numerous range within the sense of numerous completely different viewpoints. I feel typically it will get a foul rap in sure methods. I’ve a school roommate who lives right here, and I did observe the New Faculty story very, very intently and really feel that this movie is all about making an attempt to assist restore an area of civic dialogue. So to have our screening occur on the campus the place tons of of LGBTQ books had been taken and thrown into dumpsters, and be capable to push again towards that, is extraordinary. This is likely one of the civic rights fights of our time.”
The complete listing of 2025 Sarasota Movie Pageant winners is beneath.
Jury Awards
Narrative Function Competitors Winner
“Mistura”
Director: Ricardo de Montreuil
Documentary Function Competitors Winner
“The Librarians”
Administrators: Kim A. Snyder
Narrative Function Jury Particular Point out
“Colour E book”
Director: David Fortune
Documentary Function Jury Particular Point out
“River of Grass”
Director: Sasha Wortzel
Unbiased Visions Competitors Winner
“E book of Jobs”
Director: Kayci Lacob
US Narrative Quick Competitors Winner
“My Guardian Angel”
Director: Nya Chambless
Documentary Quick Competitors Winner
“Tigers of the Sky”
Director: Ian Edward Meir
Viewers Awards
Narrative Viewers Award Winner
“Being Maria”
Director: Jessica Palud
Documentary Viewers Award Winner
“The Mild They Solid”
Director: Miles Larsen
2025 Sarasota Movie Pageant Jury
Narrative Function Jury
Christian Blauvelt, Digital Director, IndieWire
Jill Campbell, Director (“Past the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Challenge”)
Josh Braun, Co-Founder, Submarine
Michael Panes, Author (“Godfather of Harlem”)
Documentary Function Jury
Addie Morfoot, Selection and New York Occasions Contributor
Geralyn Dreyfous, Academy Award profitable producer & Co-Founder, Affect Companions
Taylor McFadden, Director (“Lovers”)