Cannes jury prize winner “Sirât,” out later this month from Neon, is closing in on securing a Best International Feature Oscar nomination with another festival prize.
On Monday, the 15th annual Montclair Film Festival revealed winners across its three competitive categories during the 10-day New Jersey film showcase: Fiction, Documentary, and Future/Now. The fiction feature jury — which included Sundance producer Bill Curran, film critic/New York Film Festival programmer Kameron Austin Collins, and me — awarded the top prize to Oliver Laxe’s unforgiving travelogue about a father (Sergi López) journeying through EDM raves in the Moroccan desert in search of his missing daughter.
Other films in the section included a range of festival favorites and Oscar entries: “A Poet,” “Sound of Falling,” “Two Prosecutors,” and “Sentimental Value.”
IndieWire announces these winners exclusively. The documentary jury, which included critics Lovia Gyarkye and Nicolas Rapold and director/producer Giselle Bailey, awarded both Kahlil Joseph’s “BLKNEWS: Terms & Conditions” and Brittany Shyne’s “Seeds” — two portraits of Black American life that premiered at Sundance — in a tie.
The New York-set, Dominican-centered coming-of-age film “Mad Bills to Pay: (Or Destiny, Dile Que No Soy Malo)” from director Joel Alfonso Vargas won the Mark Urman Award for Fiction Filmmaking from the Future/Now jury, which included The Hollywood Reporter and former IndieWire editor Tony Maglio, Hamptons Film Festival programmer Matthew Jackett, and 1-2 Special’s SVP of acquisitions Amanda Trokan. The $5,000 prize was established in honor of the namesake Montclair resident. The panel also awarded a special jury prize to John Magaro for his performance as a father on a fraught road trip with his two kids.
Meanwhile, the audience award for fiction feature went to Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” while the same prize for documentary went to Ryan White’s “Come See Me in the Good Light.” The audience award for world cinema went to Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” while the audience award for short film went to “All the Empty Rooms” from Joshua Seftel.
The short film selection was juried by journalist Addie Morfoot, “Familiar Touch” star Kathleen Chalfant, and “Lost in Jersey” podcast host Rachel Martens. “The Sentry,” directed by Jake Wachtel, won the festival’s Fiction Short Film Competition. “On Whale,” directed by Winslow Crane-Murdoch, won the festival’s Documentary Short Film Competition, with a Special Jury Prize awarded to “The Long Valley,” directed by Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck.
“Standby,” directed by Robert Gomes, won the festival’s New Jersey Shorts Competition, with a Special Jury Prize awarded to “Brenda,” directed by Jasmine Wang and Danny Monico.
The 2025 Montclair Film Festival’s Junior Jury included 15 area high school students representing 12 schools. Their top prize went to Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” with a special jury prize for debut feature going to Akinola Davies Jr. for “My Father’s Shadow.”