The Virginia Film festival opened with Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s lush biopic of the famous conductor Leonard Bernstein and then closed five days later with another music-based entry, the remarkable Jon Batiste documentary American Symphony. Batiste sent the festival goers home in rousing fashion with a 20-minute mini-concert that turned into a true communal experience. In between those cinematic entries covering the stories of two very different musical geniuses, many a fine film could be seen.
High profile films like Rustin, Ava Duvernay’s Origin, Todd Haynes’ May December, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s War Pony, and Cord Jefferson’s dynamic directorial debut American Fiction bumped up against terrific indie films like Breakwater and foreign film Oscar hopefuls like The Taste of Things.
After tabulating the votes from fest-goers, here are the 2023 Audience winners for the 36th annual Virginia Film Festival:
Narrative Feature: Origin (Ava Duvernay, director)
Documentary Feature: American Symphony (Matthew Heineman)
Narrative Short: Dreams of Home
Documentary Short: Black Godfather of Scuba
Also announced were the winners of the 2023 Programmers’ Awards:
Narrative: American Fiction (Cord Jefferson, Director)
Documentary: No Ordinary Campaign
Narrative Short: For the Moon
Documentary Short: 1-15-41
Seven individual honors were awarded to:
Visionary Award: Ava DuVernay (Origin)
Directorial Achievement Award: Matthew Heineman (American Symphony)
Breakthrough Director Award: Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)
Changemaker Award: Nikki Giovanni (Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project)
Chronicler Award: Nicole Newnham (The Disappearance of Shere Hite)
Craft Award: Kazu Hiro (Maestro)
Governor Gerald L. Baliles Founder’s Award: Ricardo Preve (Sometime, Somewhere)
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