SXSW Film Festival: 'Cesar Chavez' Among Audience Award Winners

The SXSW Film festival has announced the audience awards.

Three films won the awards. One of them was Diego Luna's biopic "Cesar Chavez." The film, starring starring Rosario Dawson, Michael Pena, America Ferrera and John Malkovich, tells the story of civil rights activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez. The film is slated to be released by Lionsgate on March 28.

Shawn Christensen's drama "Before I Disappear" also took home an award. The film competed in narrative competition and tells the story of Richie who gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his 11-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours. The film stars the director, Fatima Ptacek, and Emmy Rossum. Christensen was nominated for an Oscar for his short film "Curfew."

The other film to win was the abortion documentary "Vessel." The film by Diana Whitten received a special jury recognition for political courage in the documentary competition earlier this week in addition to the documentary feature prize.

The audience award is important because audiences vote for the prize and it sometimes gives the film more buzz and word of mouth. Last year "Short Term 12" took home the audience award and the grand jury prize, becoming one of the most acclaimed movies of the year.

The festival also gave prizes in the documentary spotlight ("DamNation"), visions, midnighters, episodic, SXGlobal, festival favorites and design categories. The 24 Beats Per Second category will be announced on Monday following Saturday screenings.

The festival jury handed out its jury prizes on Tuesday. The winner of the Grand Jury Prize was awarded to "Fort Tilden." The movie tells the story of Allie and Harper and their needlessly difficult journey to the beach. The movie stars Bridey Elliot and Clare McNulty and was directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Roger. The film has yet to score a distribution deal but news of one should come soon. Meanwhile, the BP oil spill documentary, "The Great Invisible," won best documentary feature. The film was directed by Margaret Brown and is likely to get a lot of buzz coming out of the festival.

Other winners included Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," which took home the Louis Black Lone Star Award for a Texas film. That movie is slated to be released by IFC Films and has received a lot of buzz because the movie was shot over a 12-year period. Kat Candler's "Hellion" received a special mention in the SXSW Gamechanger Emergent Woman Director category. That movie stars Aaron Paul, Juliette Lewis, Josh Wiggins, and David Maldonado. The film has no distribution deal but should not have trouble finding a buyer given its cast.

The SXSW Film Festival is one of the most important events in the industry and it has seen a number of filmmakers break out. This year a number of celebrity guests attended the event including Jason Bateman, Lena Dunham, Kevin Bacon, Dana Brunetti and Edward Snowden.