Indigenous Documentary Feature CEREMONY Wins Audience Award at SXSW

BANCHI HANUSE'S CEREMONY WINS DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT AUDIENCE AWARD AT SXSW

Austin, TX  (March 20, 2026) — Smayaykila Films is pleased 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 by the festival today.

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 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. 

CEREMONY is directed and produced by Slts’lani Banchi Hanuse, written by Hanuse and Jessica Mayhew, 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 recently launched SXSW 'Green Lens' award, which 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 was made possible through the support of Indigenous Screen Office, National Geographic Society, Hot Docs Crosscurrents Doc Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, National Film Board Of Canada – FAP, 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.