Unheralded ‘Beasts’ snags top prize at Sundance
‘House I Live In’ takes honors for documentaries
PARK CITY, Utah — Beasts of the Southern Wild, a dreamy exploration of survival on the flooded Mississippi Delta, took the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic films at the Sundance Film Festival, which ended its 10-day run on Sunday.
The top prize for documentaries went to The House I Live In, an examination of America’s criminal justice system and the war on drugs. Director Eugene Jarecki called for reforms in the prison system during his acceptance speech at Saturday’s ceremony. “The practice of treating our fellow men as the stuff of an industry of incarceration must end,” he said.
Director Justin Lin ( Fast & Furious) presented the Grand Jury award to Beasts, noting that the film’s “powerful and raw performances” represented “what independent film-making is all about.”
Though it wasn’t among the most buzzed-about films before the festival, the apocalyptic Beasts of the Southern Wild quickly became the toast of the town. Without a big-name director at its helm or an established movie star as its lead, it not only snagged the top prize but also was snatched up by Fox Searchlight for $2 million earlier in the week.
Beasts director Benh Zeitlin hoisted the 8-year-old star of the film, Quvenzhané Wallis, to the stage when accepting the award. Zeitlin noted in his speech that he was given tremendous freedom as a first-time filmmaker.
“I hope with this movie there is a flag that goes up to allow directors to explore the world,” he said. Beasts also won a cinematography award.
The Sundance honors capped the annual showcase for independent films, for which 181 movies were chosen to make their premiere.
Overall, films sales to distributors were a mixed bag at this year’s event and did not match the pre-festival hype. Director Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, a film in which he also appears, has yet to find a buyer, while The Surrogate, starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes, went for $6 million.