PRESENTED AT THE SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL SINCE 1997
Persistence of Vision Award
Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work falls outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking each year.
RECENT AWARDEES
Lynne Sachs + Every Contact Leaves a Trace (2026)
In forensic science, “trace” is the material left behind at crime scenes: fibers, gunshot residue, and other evidence that detectives use as they develop suspects and leads. Lynne Sachs takes inspiration from this concept to investigate her own life and assumptions, using as her “trace” 600 business cards she amassed over 40 years, representing everyone from a boy she slept with in college to tradespeople to film world associates.
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Sky Hopinka + maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (2025)
Memory is a slippery thing, frequently altered by experiences, exposure, and time. How can memories, so susceptible to alteration, preserve culture, combat erasure, and carry forward heritage? And if memories can be collected, how can a recollection be conveyed in a film or a photograph? Critically acclaimed, multi-hyphenate artist Sky Hopinka’s work is an ever-evolving, multifaceted exploration of the process of remembrance as one moves through time and landscape.
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Johan Grimonprez + Soundtrack for a Coup d’Etat (2024)
Who owns our imagination in a world of existential vertigo where truth has become a shipwrecked refugee? Is it the storyteller who can contain contradictions, who can slip between the languages we have been given to become a time-traveler of the imagination? Johan Grimonprez’s critically acclaimed work dances on the borders of theory and practice, between art and cinema, going beyond the dualisms of documentary and fiction, other and self, mind and brain to weave new pathways in how we perceive our realities.
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Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pamela Gentile.
Photo by Pat Mazzera.
Photo by Tommy Lau.
Photo by Tommy Lau
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Photo by Pamela Gentile
Full list of Persistence of Vision Award recipients
Lynne Sachs + Every Contact Leaves a Trace
2026
Sky Hopinka + maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore
2025
Johan Grimonprez + Soundtrack for a Coup d’Etat
2024
Mark Cousins + The March on Rome
2023
Trinh T. Minh-ha + What About China?
2022
Dash Shaw + Cryptozoo
2021
Pedro Costa + Vitalina Varela
2020
Madeline Anderson + Integration Report 1 + I Am Somebody
2019
Nathaniel Dorsky + four-film 16mm program
2018
Lynn Hershman Leeson + Tania Libre
2017
Aardman Animations
2016
Kim Longinotto + Dreamcatcher
2015
Isaac Julien
2014
Jem Cohen
2013
Barbara Kopple
2012
Matthew Barney
2011
Don Hertzfeldt
2010
Lourdes Portillo
2009
Errol Morris
2008
Heddy Honigmann
2007
Guy Maddin
2006
Adam Curtis
2005
Jon Else
2004
Pat O’Neill
2003
Fernando Birri
2002
Kenneth Anger
2001
Faith Hubley
2000
Johan van der Keuken
1999
Robert Frank
1998
Jan Švankmajer
1997