Indigenous Doc CEREMONY Wins Audience Award at SXSW

Smayaykila Films is happy to announce that documentary filmmaker Banchi Hanuse’s CEREMONY, which world premiered at SXSW, has won the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award.

The Audience Award winners for the 33rd SXSW Film & TV Festival were announced earlier this month.

In CEREMONY, when the ooligan vanishes from Bella Coola, its absence remains like a scar, pointing to a history that reaches far beyond the river. From a remote radio station on the edge of the world, Nuxalk voices rise through crackling airwaves to trace a truth no one was meant to uncover. What begins as a local broadcast becomes an awakening, confronting the systems built to erase them. Testimony, watercolour animation and rare archival footage weave a story of survival, return and the quiet revolution of an Indigenous Nation that refuses to disappear.

“CEREMONY grew from a call by Nuxalk community leadership, but its message reaches far beyond our community,” says Hanuse. “It asks all of us to remember our relationship with the natural world and with each other. The sun will continue to shine, and our future depends on whether we restore that sacred connection to all life.”

Banchi Hanuse

Banchi Hanuse is a filmmaker who works across film and radio as a co-founder of Nuxalk Radio, supporting Nuxalk language revitalization, upholding Nuxalk Nationhood and advocating for stewardship of Nuxalk homelands. Her acclaimed film Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun, premiered at Big Sky, winning the Big Sky Award in 2023, and at Hot Docs. CEREMONY, which began production in 2014, had a long journey to the screen.

Slts’lani Banchi Hanuse directs and produces CEREMONY. Hanuse and Jessica Mayhew are on writing duties. Cinematography by Luke Connor, Jean-Philippe Marquis, and edited by Erin Cumming and Sarah Taylor. The film’s animator is Jay White, animation artist Anuximana Jade Hanuse, composer Jesse Zubot and sound by Joe Watts.

The documentary features Megan F. Moody, Qwaxw Siwallace, Snuxyaltwa “DJ Y” Deric Snow, Nuskmata Jacinda Mack, Q’umulha Schooner, Sunhwrna Schooner, Jason E. Moody, Snxakila Clyde Tallio, Kmalsuuncw Orden Mack, Peter Solhjell and Tom Swanky.

The film was also a nominee for the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance’s SXSW ‘Green Lens’ award. The award honors a film or TV project that best reflects our changing world, the human experience of living through climate change, or pathways to a more sustainable future.

Ceremony Sends Thanks To

CEREMONY was made possible through the support ofL

Indigenous Screen Office
National Geographic Society
Hot Docs Crosscurrents Doc Fund
Canada Council for the Arts
National Film Board Of Canada
British Columbia Arts Council

With additional support from Gordon And Betty Moore Foundation, Makeway Foundation, Nature United, Tula Foundation, and with appreciation to Cannes Docs Marché Du Film, 4th World Media, Planet In Focus Film Festival and National Screen Institute.

SOURCE: SXSW.com