The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals announced the winners for this year’s Grulke Prize. The award, now in its seventh year, was developed in honor of our friend and colleague Creative Director Brent Grulke, who passed away on August 13, 2012. Brent’s love of music and the spirit of the festival is reflected in […]
The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals announced the winners for this year’s Grulke Prize.
The award, now in its seventh year, was developed in honor of our friend and colleague Creative Director Brent Grulke, who passed away on August 13, 2012.
Brent’s love of music and the spirit of the festival is reflected in the three prize categories: Developing U.S. Act, Developing Non U.S. Act and Career Act.
The Developing Act Prizes are for artists who are breaking new ground with their creativity and show the most promise in achieving their career goals. The Career Act Prize is for an established artist who appeared at SXSW to reinvent themselves or launch a new project.
Past winners have included Leon Bridges, Courtney Barnett, Haim, Chvrches, Jade Bird, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Iggy Pop, Todd Rundgren, Spoon and The Flaming Lips.
The Grulke Prize winner for Developing U.S. Actis Pink Sweat$. Based in Philadelphia, the artist/songwriter/producer’ music is rooted in R&B and Soul, stripping back the typical genre-specific production to showcase melodic intricacy and lyrical prowess. He began making music at the age of 19 as a demo vocalist. Soon after he found himself working at the legendary Sigma Sounds Studios, where he began his career as a songwriter and began to develop his career in music. He has worked with a wide range of today’s popular artists, but is now ready to take center-stage himself.
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TheGrulke Prize winner for Developing Non-U.S. Actis Angie McMahon. Having recently completed her first Australian headline tour, McMahon is releasing her debut album in 2019, drawing inspiration from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Lianne La Havas and Big Thief. She writes and performs across the full dynamic spectrum, shifting between gravelly intimacy and pounding rock, and her performances at SXSW bounced between whisper-quiet tones and cathartic rock roars. Early singles feature honest songwriting and romantic melodies, with songs that ruminate on life, love, and pasta.
The Grulke Prize winner for Career Act is The Chills. Hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand and fronted by the rare talent of Martin Phillipps, the band originally formed in 1980. Featuring various people over the years, Phillipps is the only remaining original member. Always a cult favorite internationally, The Chills led the charts in their native New Zealand with rock singles “Pink Frost” and “Wet Blanket”. The Chills are currently performing in support of their 2018 album Snow Bound and SXSW World Premiere Documentary Feature The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps.
Jurors for the Grulke Prize include music critics, industry professionals, and SXSW staff, many of whom knew and worked with Brent over the years.
SXSW dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. An essential destination for global professionals, the event features sessions, showcases, screenings, exhibitions, and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. SXSW 2019 will take place March 13 – 22, 2020. For more information, please visit sxsw.com.
SXSW 2019 is sponsored by Capital One, smart, Bud Light, Visible, Uber Eats, and The Austin Chronicle.
The Canadian actor, director, screenwriter and producer Xavier Dolan will be the President of the Un Certain Regard Jury of the 77th Festival de Cannes. He will be joined by French-Senegalese screenwriter and director Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director, screenwriter and producer Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic, director, and writer Todd McCarthy. They will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard section, which showcases art and discovery films by young auteurs.
This year, 18 films have been selected, including 8 first films. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex.
When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on Wednesday May 15, 2024.
XAVIER DOLAN – President Actor, director, screenwriter, producer Canada
An actor since the age of four, Xavier Dolan directed and starred in his first feature film, I killed my mother, which was a big hit at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2009. This was followed by Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways, presented at the Festival de Cannes in 2010 and 2012 at Un Certain Regard, where they were enthusiastically received. In 2013, Tom at the Farm was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. With Mommy, he is awarded several prizes, including the Prix du Jury at the 2014 Festival de Cannes and the César for Best Foreign Film. Grand Prize winner at the 2016 Festival de Cannes with It’s only the end of the World, he returns to Competition with Matthias & Maxime in 2019. After a few notable roles with other filmmakers, such as his performance in Xavier Giannoli’s Lost Illusions in 2021, for which he was nominated for a César for Best Supporting Actor, in 2022 he directed the series The Night Logan woke up. Xavier Dolan was a member of the Jury in 2015, and now chairs the Un Certain Regard Jury.
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MAÏMOUNA DOUCOURÉ Screenwriter, director France, Senegal
Her first professional short film, Maman(s), was selected for nearly 200 festivals around the world and won more than 60 awards, including the Jury Prize at Sundance, the Best Film Award in Toronto and the 2017 César for Best Short Film. In 2019, Maïmouna Doucouré receives the Gold Fellowship Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures. Released in 2020, Cuties, her first feature film, wins the Best Director Award at Sundance and a Special Mention from the International Generation Jury in Berlin. The film’s lead actress, Fathia Youssouf, won the César for Best Actress. Her second feature-length film, Hawa, produced in 2022 with Prime Vidéo, was also presented in Toronto. Maïmouna Doucouré is currently working on her next feature film about the legendary Joséphine Baker.
ASMAE EL MOUDIR Director, screenwriter, producer Morocco
Asmae El Moudir studied cinema at the Moroccan University and at La Fémis in Paris. She has directed several award winning short films. She completed her Al Jazeera television documentary, The Postcard, in 2020. The Mother of all Lies is her first independent documentary feature premiered at the 2023 Festival de Cannes where it won the Un Certain Regard Directing Prize. The film also won the Golden Eye for Best Documentary. The film is screened at Toronto, Sundance, Melbourne, Busan, Karlovy Vary as well as many festivals around the world and won more than 25 awards. Asmae El Moudir is nominated for the PGA Award and the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Doc. Most recently, she won the IDA Award (International Documentary Association) for Best Director. The Mother of All Lies was also shortlisted in the international features section of the Oscars 2024.
An international actress who works in French, English and German, Vicky Krieps has appeared in Joe Wright’s Hannah (2011), Philippe Claudel’s Before the Winter Chill(2013), Anton Corbijn’s A most wanted Man(2014), Ingo Haeb’s The Chambermaid Lynn(2015), Raoul Peck’s The Young Karl Marx(2017), and starred alongside Daniel Day Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread(2017). In 2021, she defended two films selected for the Festival de Cannes, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island in Competition and Mathieu Amalric’s Hold me tight. The following year, she returned with two young German and Austrian directors in the Un Certain Regard section: Emily Atef’s More than Ever and Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, which won her the Un Certain Regard Jury’s Best Actress Award in 2022. She will soon be seen in Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt and Hot Milkby Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
TODD MCCARTHY Film critic, director, writer United States
Todd McCarthy is a Cannes veteran – his first was in 1970 – who for decades covered the Festival for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Among his books are the definitive biography “Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood”, “Kings of the Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System” and “Fast Women” about female race car drivers. He won an Emmy Award for his documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of a Hollywood Genius and is currently working on a project set in Hollywood just after World War II.
Do LaB kicked off its return to Coachella Weekend Two on Friday, April 19 with a couple standout surprise performances and a full lineup of electronic and crossover talent. Check out highlights from the first day of Weekend Two at the Do LaB stage below.
Prolific French DJ and hitmaker DJ Snake performed a special hip-hop set as the headlining surprise guest of the night.
Versatile trap and hip-hop influenced fan favorite TroyBoi performed as the other Do LaB surprise set of the night.
Additional previously announced day one programming featured acts like Juelz, HoneyLiv, CocoRosie, Alleycvt, Yung Singh, and more.
Stay tuned for notifications on announcements, surprise sets, and more by visiting the link here. Set times for the remainder of the weekend can be found here, along with more general info on Do LaB in the press release here. Additional photo selects from each day can be found here (photographer name listed in file name for photo credits).
The Do LaB stage at Coachella provides a preview of the brand’s flagship boutique festival, Lightning in a Bottle. The five day Lightning in a Bottle experience fuses a top tier musical lineup, immersive art installations, cause-driven educational programming, and a variety of yoga and movement programming within a sprawling lakeside venue in beautiful Buena Vista Lake, California.
Taking place over Memorial Day Weekend on May 22-27, LIB 2024’s musical programming highlights include Skrillex, Labrinth, Lane 8, James Blake, M.I.A., Skream, Tycho, ISOxo, Tipper, Fatboy Slim, CloZee, Nora En Pure, Bob Moses, Honey Dijon, Damian Lazarus, and several more.
More info on LIB can be found on their website here and in the official press release here, along with the media application here.