Reflecting fest’s diversity
‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ and ‘Burden’ take top prizes at ceremony.
PARK CITY, Utah — This year’s Sundance Film Festival has seemed relatively quiet, with no breakout hits and fewer high-dollar acquisitions than usual. But there has still been a steady energy throughout the 10-day event.
There was certainly plenty of enthusiasm as the festival’s jury and audience awards were announced Saturday night in a ceremony hosted by comedian and actor Jason Mantzoukas.
The U.S. dramatic grand jury prize went to “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” directed by Desiree Akhavan. Adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s novel, the film on gay conversion therapy, stars Chloë Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane.
The U.S. dramatic audience award went to “Burden,” the real-life story of a Southern Klansman (played by Garrett Hedlund) who turns against his beliefs, directed by Andrew Heckler.
The awards celebrated a range of films and filmmakers, representing the diversity that had become a common point of conversation throughout this year’s fest.
Keri Putnam, executive director of the Sundance Institute ,said: “I would just like to encourage all of us to take this energy that we feel here at the festival and continue to advocate together as a community on behalf of the diverse stories, the independent artists and the bold, creative visions we all want to see.”
Sara Colangelo won the U.S. dramatic section directing prize for “The Kindergarten Teacher,” starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as a woman who comes to believe that one of her students is a poetry prodigy.
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to “Nancy,” written and directed by Christina Choe.
Benjamin Dickey won a special jury award for acting in “Blaze,” directed by Ethan Hawke. A special jury award for excellence in filmmaking went to “I Think We’re Alone Now,” directed by Reed Morano. A special jury award for outstanding first feature went to “Monsters and Men,” directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green.
“Monsters and Men” was the only U.S. dramatic prize winner to have a distribution deal announced before the awards. The drama was acquired by Neon, which last year got “Beach Rats” and “Ingrid Goes West” at Sundance and has seen awards season success with Toronto International Film Festival acquisition “I, Tonya.”
Whether it was intentional or not, the jury avoided giving any prizes to four U.S. dramatic competition titles that did secure distribution: sexual abuse survivor drama “The Tale” (acquired by HBO), quirky social satire “Sorry to Bother You” (acquired by Annapurna), fact-based heist drama “American Animals” (acquired by the Orchard and MoviePass Ventures) and race relations tale “Blindspotting” (acquired by Lionsgate).
Many had wondered which films would appeal to the unusual jury mix: actresses Jada Pinkett Smith and Octavia Spencer, cinematographer Rachel Morrison, filmmaker Joe Swanberg and actor Michael Stuhlbarg. (Morrison and Spencer were both nominated for Academy Awards during Sundance.)
The inaugural Next Innovator Award winner was decided by a jury of just one, entertainer RuPaul, who surprisingly came to a tie.
“I fought long and hard with myself over this,” RuPaul said at the awards.
The prize went to Jordana Spiro’s “Night Comes On,” an intimate story of young sisters in a troubled home, and Jeremiah Zagar’s “We the Animals,” a comingof-age story based on the novel by Justin Torres.
The Next Audience Award was given to Aneesh Chaganty’s “Search,” starring John Cho.
“Kailash,” directed by Derek Doneen, won the U.S. documentary grand jury award. It’s about Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.
The Audience Award went to Rudy Valdez’s “The Sentence,” which was acquired by HBO.
In the evening’s most emotional speech, Valdez said, “I felt like my community was underserved. I kept waiting… I decided I wasn’t going to wait any longer for someone to give me a voice.”
The U.S. documentary directing prize went to Alexandria Bombach for “On Her Shoulders.”
A special jury award for storytelling went to “Three Identical Strangers,” directed by Tim Wardle. A special jury award for breakthrough filmmaking went to Bing Liu for “Minding the Gap.” A special jury award for creative vision went to RaMell Ross for “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.” A special jury award for social impact went to Stephen Maing for “Crime + Punishment.”
In the World Cinema Documentary competition, the grand jury award went to “Of Fathers and Sons,” a story of jihadism in Syria directed by Talal Derki.
“Sundance is my family, and cinema is my religion,” Derki said at the awards.
The audience award went to “This Is Home,” directed by Alexandria Shiv, for a story of Syrian refugees in contemporary America.
The directing award went to Sandi Tan for “Shirkers,” the story of an unfinished film project she was involved with as a teenager and her attempt to discover what became of its missing footage.
“I think cinema is magic, and you’ve just got to keep believing in it,” Tan said.
In the World Cinema Dramatic competition, the grand jury award went to the Turkish film “Butterflies” and writer-director Tolga Karaçelik. The audience award went to the Danish film “The Guilty,” directed by Gustav Möller, which was acquired by Magnolia.
Sundance awards historically have little correlation with a film’s commercial or awards season performance. Last year’s U.S. dramatic grand jury prize winner, “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” bypassed theaters and was available on the Netflix streaming service barely a month later.
But three of the five documentaries nominated for an Oscar premiered at last year’s festival. A total of 16 Oscar nominations went to films that screened at Sundance a year ago.