The Sundance Film Festival announced its annual awards during a presentation in Park City, Utah, on Friday morning. “In the Summers,” written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza, won the grand jury prize of the American drama competition for its story of two sisters' visits to their father in New Mexico. “The Porcelain War,” directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, took the U.S. jury’s grand prize for documentary. The film is a journey through artists living in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
Moving on to world cinema, the grand jury dramatic prize went to Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez's “Sujo,” a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Mexican drug cartel violence. The grand jury prize for documentary was awarded to Silje Evensmo Jacobsen for “A New Kind of Wilderness,” a look at a family living in a remote forest in Norway and adapting to modern life.
The NEXT innovator award went to Jack Begert's “Little Death,” a story of addiction set in Los Angeles.
The festival favorite award, eligible for films from all sections of the programming, went to “Daughters” from the American documentary competition, a chronicle of four girls growing up while their parents serve prison sentences.
The audience awards went to “Dìdi (弟弟),” directed by Sean Wang, who was nominated for an Academy Award this week for the short documentary “Nai Nai & Wài Pó.” The audience award for the American documentary also went to “Daughters”, awarded by the jury, and the audience award for the world documentary competition went to the Norwegian film “Ibelin”, directed by Benjamin Ree. The World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award went to “Girls Will Be Girls,” directed by Shuchi Talati, set in a girls' boarding school in the Himalayas. The NEXT Audience Award was won by Rich Peppiatt’s “Kneecap,” a profile of the Irish-language rap trio of the same name.
Other jury awards went to Lacorazza for directing “In the Summers” and Jesse Eisenberg for writing “A Real Pain.” Special jury awards went to “Dìdi (弟弟)” for ensemble performance and, for his outstanding performance, to Nico Parker for “Suncoast.”
In the American documentary competition, Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie won the directing prize for “Sugarcane,” Carla Gutiérrez won for editing “Frida,” and a special jury prize was awarded for the sound work of “Gaucho Gaucho.” . The special jury prize for “art of change” went to “Union.”
Izaac Wang in the film “Dìdi (弟弟)” by Sean Wang.
(Sundance Institute)
In the world drama film competition, an additional award went to Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi for directing “In the Land of Brothers.” Peter Raeburn received a Special Jury Award for Original Music for “Handling the Undead” and a Special Jury Award for Acting went to Preeti Panigrahi for “Girls Will Be Girls.”
For world cinema documentary, Benjamin Ree won the directing award for “Ibelin.” The jury's special prize for craftsmanship went to “Nocturnos.” The award for cinematographic innovation went to Johan Grimonprez for “The soundtrack of a coup d'état”. The special jury award for NEXT went to “Desire Lines.”
The 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival concludes on Sunday.
