…and just like that, the Sundance Film Festival has closed for another year, and tonight at Park City, the awards were handed out with one hotly buzzed film taking two major titles.
Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale" took the Grand Jury Prize and Dramatic Audience Award, which is great news for The Weinstein Company who made the picture their first buy of the festival earlier in the week. Led by a much talked about lead performance by "Chronicle" star Michael B. Jordan, the film tells the story of the hours leading up to New Year's Day in 2009, when the 22-year-old Oscar Grant was pulled off a rowdy BART train at the Fruitvale station and was shot in the back, dying from his wounds. However, cell phone footage captured the entire event, leading to the sentencing of Officer Mehserle to two years in prison. With these two prizes, you might as well put this on the Oscar contender list for next fall.
Two films took home Special Jury prizes, including "The Spectacular Now" for acting by its ensemble cast, and Shane Carruth's "Upstream Color" for sound design, while "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" shared a cinematography win with "Mother Of George." Other winners of note include: Jill Solloway for directing "Afternoon Delight"; a cinematography award to Sebastian Silva for the Michael Cera-starring "Crystal Fairy"; a screenwriting win for Lake Bell for "In A World…"; and the Alfred P. Sloan prize to Andrew Bujalski for "Computer Chess."
Complete list of winners below, and see you next year at Sundance:
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:
"Fruitvale," directed by Ryan Coogler
Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
"Blood Brother," directed by Steve Hoover
World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic:
"Jiseul," directed by Muel O
World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary:
"A River Changes Course," directed Kalyanee Mam
Dramatic Audience Award:
"Fruitvale," directed by Ryan Coogler
Documentary Audience Award:
"Blood Brother," directed by Steve Hoover
World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award:
"Metro Manila," directed by Sean Ellis
World Cinema Documentary Audience Award:
"The Square," directed by Jehane Noujaim
The Best of NEXT Audience Award:
"This Is Martin Bonner," directed by Chad Hartigan
Directing Award, Dramatic:
Jill Solloway, "Afternoon Delight"
Directing Award, Documentary:
Zachary Heinzerling, "Cutie and the Boxer"
World Cinema Directing Award, Dramatic:
Sebastián Silva, "Crystal Fairy"
World Cinema Directing Award, Documentary:
Tinatin Gurchiani, "The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear"
Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award:
Lake Bell, "In a World"
World Cinema 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, Dramatic:
Bradford Young, "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" and "Mother of George"
Excellence in Cinematography Award, Documentary:
Richard Rowley, "Dirty Wars"
World Cinema Cinematography Award, Dramatic:
Michal Englert, "Lasting"
World Cinema Cinematography Award, Documentary:
Marc Silver & Pau Esteve Birba, "Who Is Dayani Cristal?"
Special Jury Prize: Dramatic (Acting):
Miles Teller & Shailene Woodley, "The Spectacular Now"
Special Jury Prize: Dramatic (For Sound Design)
Shane Carruth & Johnny Marshal, "Upstream Color"
Special Jury Prizes: Documentary:
"Inequality For All," directed by Jacob Kornbluth
"American Promise" directed by Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson
World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary
"Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer," directed by Mike Lerner & Maxim Pozdorovkin
World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic
"Circus" directed by Srdan Golubovic
Alfred P. Sloan Prize
"Computer Chess," directed by Andrew Bujalski
The Short Film Audience Award
"Catnip: Egress to Oblivion," directed by Jason Willis
The Short Film Grand Jury Prize:
"The Whistle," directed by Grzegorz Zariczny
The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction:
"Whiplash," directed by Damien Chazelle
The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction:
"The Date," directed by Jenni Toivoniemi
The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction:
"Skinningrove," directed by Michael Almereyda
The Short Film Jury Award: Animation:
"Irish Folk Furniture," directed by Tony Donoghue
A Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting:
Joel Naglein in "Palimpsest"
A Short Film Special Jury Award:
"Until the Quiet Comes," directed by Kahlil Joseph
So we now know which film will have the buzz behind it later in the yea. Well done to Fruitvale I don't know much about it yet but it will find out soon. Also well done to The Spectacular Now I am looking forward to that film.