Mr. Roosevelt Wins SXSW Audience Award and Lonestar Award
We couldn’t be more thrilled at the success of Mr. Roosevelt during this year’s SXSW Film Festival. The film took home two awards…the SXSW Audience Award for Narrative Feature and the SXSW Louis Black Lonestar Award. Revelator worked alongside the team at Beachside Films and Sleepy Sheep, to bring the movie to life this past year, and the film’s World Premiere was at the Paramount Theater 2017 SXSW Film Festival this month! The film was written and directed by Noël Wells, who you might recognize from Master of None, and Saturday Night Live.
Wells spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her directorial debut, which follows a struggling comedian who returns home after a family member falls ill. “The comedy movies that I really love all resonate with people on a human level, and the intent at the end of the day is I hope people will connect [with this movie],” she said.
On top of the great awards and reviews, Variety just released it’s “Variety Critics Pick” for the 10 Best Films of the 2017 Festival…and our Mr. Roosevelt is on the list! Mr. Roosevelt was one of a select group of films chosen for the Narrative Spotlight section, which highlights high profile narrative features receiving their World, North American, or U.S premieres.
The film follows struggling LA-based comedian Emily Martin, played by Wells, as she returns to Austin after a death in her family. There she finds herself in the awkward position of staying with her ex and his new girlfriend, until the funeral, while trying to close old doors from her past. Co-starring Nick Thune, Britt Lower, Daniella Pineda, and Andre Hyland, the film was produced by Beachside Films’ Michael B. Clark and Alex Turtletaub, and Revelator’s own Chris Ohlson.
“We were thrilled to have the film premiere at SXSW and the Audience Award is a real compliment to the film. Since the film is set in Austin, it feels extra special to receive the Lonestar and Audience awards at the SXSW festival,” said Ohlson.
The film is written, directed and stars, Wells. Noël is an actor, writer and director from San Antonio, Texas. After graduating college, she joined a house sketch team at the Upright Citizens Brigade in LA where she was then cast as a featured player on “SNL.” She recently starred alongside Jessica Williams in “The Incredible Jessica James.”
The 2017 SXSW Film Festival ran for nine days of screenings from March 10th through March 18th. It was an exciting week for Revelator at SXSW 2017, with several screenings of Mr Roosevelt, and an exciting video production project to boot. Revelator created all of the video content for the Pandora House, including the creation of performance videos, highlight reels, artist interviews and behind the scenes snippets, which will be released on Pandora’s social media in the coming weeks. So, stay tuned for that Pandora bonanza, and congrats again to the entire crew of Mr. Roosevelt!