“A Thousand and One,” a drama about an impoverished single mother and her son in New York City, won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize in the US Drama Competition, while Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project took home the grand prize in the US Documentary category. This year’s winners were announced at an awards ceremony Friday afternoon in Park City, Utah, which featured an audience award for the documentary ” 20 days in Mariupol.”
Writer Jeremy O. Harris, filmmaker Eliza Hittman and actress Marlee Matlin judged the US drama competition.
Harris tearfully said he asked that the grand jury award be given to “A Thousand and One” and writer-director AV Rockwell himself.
“I’ve never seen a life so similar to my own portrayed with such nuance and tenderness,” Harris said. “This film reached my gut and pulled out of it all the emotions I’ve learned to hide in those spaces.”
Rockwell, who made her feature film debut with the film, was similarly emotional.
“This has been such a long journey for me, but the Institute has been such a beautiful support system,” Rockwell said.
“20 Days in Mariupol,” a first-person narrator about the beginnings of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, won the audience award for the worldwide feature documentary. The film, a joint project of The Associated Press and PBS “Frontline,” uses 30 hours of footage by AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues shot in the besieged Ukrainian city before they were extracted.
“I want to thank everyone who believed in us: AP, Frontline and Sundance and all the viewers who didn’t turn their backs,” Chernov said. “It’s not an achievement, it’s a privilege.”
Sing J. Lee won the US Drama Directing Award for The Accidental Getaway Driver. The team of ” theater camp “ was awarded a special prize by the jury for ensemble. Lío Mehiel, who calls himself a pronoun for her/her, received the Special Jury Award for her performance in “Mutt,” about a trans male person one day in New York. And the drama “Magazine Dreams”, in which Jonathan Majors plays an amateur bodybuilder, was recognized for his creative vision.
“Everyone in this room, everyone, every person, we give you our deepest props and our deepest respect,” Matlin said through an interpreter. She also thanked her “CODA” team, who won big at the festival two years ago. Her Oscar-winning co-star Troy Kotsur was in the audience cheering her on.
Other Grand Jury Prize winners included: World Cinema’s “Scrapper,” about a 12-year-old girl who lives alone on the outskirts of London after the death of her mother; and The Eternal Memory, a world cinema documentary about the impact of Alzheimer’s on a 25-year relationship. “Kokomo City,” about the lives of black transgender sex workers, won the NEXT Innovator Award and the Audience Award in the NEXT category.
Other Audience Award winners included The Persian Version for US Dramatic, Beyond Utopia for US Documentary and Shayda for World Cinema Dramatic. The Festival Favorite award went to “Radical,” starring Eugenio Derbez as an inspirational teacher in a Mexican border town.
A total of 12 films premiered in the documentary section of World Cinema, including films about climate change, Syria, growing up under apartheid and the International Chopin Piano Competition. The Eternal Memory, about a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s, won the Grand Jury Prize in that category.
Other award winners in the category included Fantastic Machine for Creative Vision, Against the Tide for Verité Filmmaker, and Smoke Sauna Sisterhood for Directing.
Several of last year’s Sundance winners have recently been nominated for Oscars, including the documentaries “Navalny” and “All That Breathes.”
Many Sundance films came to the festival with permanent distribution. Apple TV+ debuted Still: A Michael J. Fox Story and Stephen Curry: Underrated. Neon had Infinity Pool, A24 brought six movies including All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, You Hurt My Feelings and Past Lives. Searchlight had the South London romantic comedy Rye Lane.
Several major purchases were also made at the festival this year. Apple TV+, which earned its first Best Picture award when it paid $25 million for Sundance’s “CODA,” won John Carney’s (“Once”) musical rom-com “Flora and Son,” starring Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon Levitt. Netflix secured the rights to corporate thriller Fair Play, starring Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor, produced and distributed by MRC. Both films went for $20 million. Searchlight also purchased Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s mockumentary Theater Camp for a theatrical release later this year.
This year’s festival, the first face-to-face meeting since 2020, presented 111 feature films and 64 short films. Over 75% of the films are available on Sundance’s online platform by Sunday, January 29th.
“We’re already thinking about the next one,” said Joana Vicente, CEO of Sundance.
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