Last night the Sundance Institute announced the award winners in a ceremony hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the following is what the director of the fest, John Cooper, commented:
“The films at our Festival this year truly reflect the unbridled passion, immense talent and diverse stories coming from the independent filmmaking community. I am confident that the awards presented this evening will fuel those films with special promise and that audiences will continue to champion the films they have discovered here.”
These are the winners.
U.S. Competition
Dramatic
Grand Jury Award: Frutivale, Tom Rothman
Directing Award: Jill Soloway for Afternoon Delight
Screenwriting Award: Lake Bell for In a World…, Lake Bell
Cinematography Award: Bradford Young for Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Mother of George
Special Jury Award for Acting: Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley in The Spectacular Now, James Ponsoldt
Special Jury Award for Sound Design: Shane Carruth and Johnny Marshall for Upstream Color, Shane Carruth
Documentary
Grand Jury Award: Blood Brother, Steve Hoover
Directing Award: Zachary Heinzerling for Cutie and the Boxer
Editing Award: Matthew Hamacheck for Gideon’s Army, Dawn Porter
Cinematography Award: Richard Rowley for Dirty Wars, Richard Rowley
Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking: Inequality for All, Jacob Kronbluth
Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking: American Promise, Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
World Cinema Competition
Dramatic
Grand Jury Award: 지슬 Jiseul, Muel O, South Korea
Directing Award: Sebastián Silva for Crystal Fairy, Chile and USA
Screenwriting Award: Barmak Akram for Wajma (An Afghan Love Story), Barmak Akram, Afghanistan
Cinematography Award: Nieulotne (Lasting), Jacek Borcuch, Poland and Spain
Special Jury Award: Krugovi (Circles), Srdan Golubović, Serbia, Germany, France, Croatia and Slovenia
Documentary
Grand Jury Award: ក្បង់ទឹកទន្លេ A River Changes Course, Kayanee Mam, Cambodia and USA
Directing Award: Tinatin Gurchiani for Manqana, romelic kvelafers gaaqrobs (The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear), Georgia and Germany
Editing Award: The Summit, Nick Ryan, Ireland and UK
Cinematography Award: Who is Dayani Cristal?, Marc Silver, UK
Special Jury Award for Punk Spirit: Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Russia and UK
Short Film Competition
Grand Jury Prize: The Whistle, Grzegorz Zariczny, Poland
U.S. Fiction Jury Award: Whiplash, Damien Chazelle, USA
U.S. Non-Fiction Jury Award: Skinningrove, Michael Almereyda
International Fiction Award: The Date, Jenni Toivoniemi, Finland
Animation Jury Award: Irish Folk Furniture, Tony Donoghue, Ireland
Special Jury Award for Acting: Joel Nagle in Palimpsest, Michael Tyburski, USA
Special Jury Award: Until the Quiet Comes, Kahlil Joseph, USA
Audience Awards
US Dramatic: Frutivale, Tom Rothman
US Documentary: Blood Brother, Steve Hoover
World Cinema Dramatic: Metro Manila, Sean Ellis, UK and Philippines
World Cinema Documentary: Al Midan (The Square), Jehane Noujaim, Egypt and USA
Best of NEXT <=>: This is Martin Booner, Chad Hartigan, USA
Short Film: Catnip: Egress to Oblivion?, Jason Willis, USA
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: Computer Chess, Andrew Bujalski, USA
To learn other special awards check press release. What somehow surprises me is the many female filmmakers present in different competitions and the very low percentage of them that got an award. In the US Dramatic competition only 2 female directors won awards, one for directing and another for screenwriting. Do not know what this fact really means but just hope that these female directors were not chosen because their gender or to fulfill a festival “quota” as IF their work was NOT award-quality then should not be in competition. Sigh.
