It was 10 long days, 119 movies from over 30 countries, and thousands of people who turned out in Park City for this year's Sundance Film Festival. It was a great event, and tonight saw first-time director Joseph Gordon-Levitt hosting the ceremony announcing the prestigious jury and audience award winners.
The big winner of the evening was Fruitvale, Ryan Coogler's dramatization of the Oscar Grant shooting, which took home both the U.S. Dramatic Jury Grand Prize and the Dramatic Audience award. The Directing Award for Drama went to Jill Soloway for her stripper comedy, Afternoon Delight. James Ponsoldt's eagerly awaited The Spectacular Now(review here) took home the Special Jury Prize for Acting for stars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. Sebastian Silva, who had two films with Michael Cera at the festival, won in the World Cinema Directing: Drama category for Crystal Fairy(review here).
Fruitvale had the most buzz of any film out there, so its victory comes as no surprise to me. The film has already been picked up by The Weinstein Company and should get a significant award season push. I'm also happy to see Crystal Fairy and The Spectacular Now, two of my favorites from the festival, getting the acclaim they deserve.
See the complete list of winners below:
Grand Jury Prize: Documentary - Steve Hoover, "Blood Brother"
Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic - Ryan Coogler, "Fruitvale"
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary - Kalyanee Man, "A River Changes Course"
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic - Muel O, "Jiseul"
Audience Award: Documentary - Steve Hoover, "Blood Brother"
Audience Award: Dramatic - Ryan Coogler, "Fruitvale"
World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary - Jehane Noujaim, "The Square"
Best of NEXT Audience Award - Chad Hartigan, "This is Martin Bonner" Directing Award: Documentary - Zachary Heinzerling, "Cutie and the Boxer"
Directing Award: Dramatic - Jill Soloway, "Afternoon Delight"
World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary - Tinatin Gurchiani, "The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear"
World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic - Sebastian Silva, "Crystal Fairy"
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award - Lake Bell, "In A World..."
World Cinema Dramatic Screenwriting Award - Barmak Akram, "Wajma (An Afghan Love Story)"
Documentary Editing Award - Matthew Hamachek, "Gideon's Army"
World Cinema Documentary Editing Award - Ben Stark, "The Summit"
Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary - Richard Rowley, "Dirty Wars"
Excellence in Cinematography Award: Dramatic - Bradford Young, "Mother of George," "Ain't Them Bodies Saints"
World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary - Marc Silver, "Who is Dayani Cristal?"
World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic - Michal Englert, "Lasting"
World Cinema Special Jury Award - Srdan Golubovic, "Circles"
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize - Mike Lerner & Maxim Pozdorovkin. "Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer"
Documentary Special Jury Prize - Jacob Kornbluth, "Inequality for All"
Documentary Special Jury Prize - Joe Brewster and Michele Stephensen, "American Promise"
Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Sound Design- Shane Carruth and Johnny Marshall, "Upstream Color"
Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Acting - Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, "The Spectacular Now"
Shorts Audience Award - Jason Willis, "Catnip: Egress to Oblivion?"
Short Film Grand Jury Prize - Grzegorz Zariczny, "The Whistle"
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize - Andrew Bujalski, "Computer Chess"
Sundance Institute/NHK Award - Kyohta Fujimoto and Kentaro Hagiwara, "Spectacled Tiger"
