The Winners of Sundance 2020
Sundance Film Festival is a famous yearly cinema festival that sees countless independent films being showcased to cinema lovers. The festival committee announces winners based off of how well done the movies are just like any other event. Lee Isaac Chung’s ‘Minari’ was so beloved by the audience at Sundance 2020 that it ended up receiving the top U.S. Dramatic grand jury prize. ‘Minari’ is based on Chung’s own childhood on a rural Arkansas farm, following a Korean American family as they struggle to establish roots in a new home. ‘Minari’ did not just win the jury grand prize, but also the audience award, something achieved by a total of eight films since 1989. Among those films are Oscar nominees ‘Whiplash’ and ‘Precious.’
The next winner on the list is the winner of the top U.S. Documentary prize ‘Boys State.’ This film tells the chronicle of a weeklong boys’ leadership camp in Texas from directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. ‘Boys State’ managed to ink a record-breaking $12 million documentary deal. The audience award for U.S. documentary went to ‘Crip Camp,’ directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim Lebrecht.
All four of the jury directing prizes went to female filmmakers: Garrett Bradley’s “Time” in U.S. Documentary, Radha Blank’s ‘The 40-Year-Old Version’ in U.S. Dramatic, Iryna Tsilyk’s ‘The Earth is Blue as an Orange’ from Ukraine/Lithuania in World Documentary and Maïmouna Doucouré’s ‘Cuties’ from France in World Dramatic. Blank won the award for U.S. Dramatic directing for a semiautobiographical New York-set story she wrote, directed and stars in about a frustrated playwright who finds a new outlet in hip-hop.
The winner of the NEXT section of the film festival received both the audience award and the jury award. This film is ‘I Carry You With Me,’ a Spanish language love story, and the first fiction feature filmed by documentary filmmaker Heidi Ewing. Which helped even more to highlight how strong competition was this year. Other than this winner, there were countless others that had never been their before. A testament to how unique the film festival is, there are always new directors receiving awards for their new and unique films.
U.S. Dramatic Jury Awards
The jury, composed of director Rodrigo Garcia, actor Ethan Hawke, filmmaker Dee Rees, actress Isabella Rossellini and director Wash Westmoreland vote on countless films for a variety of awards.
Grand Jury Prize: ‘Minari’- directed by Lee Isaac Chung
Jury Award for Directing: Radha Blank- ‘The 40-Year-Old Version’
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Edson Oda- ‘Nine Days’
Special Jury Award for Neorealism: Eliza Hittman- ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’
Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking: Josephine Decker- ‘Shirley’
Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast: ‘Charm City Kings’
U.S. Documentary Jury Awards
This jury is composed of director Kimberly Reed, SFFILM director of programming Rachel Rosen, CNN Films senior vice president Courtney Sexton, director E. Chai Vasarhelyi and ITVS vice president of content Noland Walker.
Grand Jury Prize: ‘Boys State’- directed by Jesse Moss
Jury Award for Directing: Garrett Bradley- ‘Time’
Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling: Kirsten Johnson- ‘Dick Johnson Is Dead’
Special Jury Award for Editing: Tyler H. Walk- ‘Welcome To Chechnya’
Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking: Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres- ‘The Fight’
Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker: Arthur Jones- ‘Feels Good Man’
World Cinema Dramatic Jury Awards
The jury for these awards was director Haifaa Al Mansour, actor Wagner Moura and actress Alba Rohrwacher.
Grand Jury Prize: ‘Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness,’- directed by Massoud Bakhsh (Iran/France/Germany/Switzerland/Luxembourg)
Jury Award for Directing: Maïmouna Doucouré- ‘Cuties’ (France)
Special Jury Award for Best Screenplay: Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero- ‘Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares)’ (Mexico/Spain)
Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese- ‘This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection’ (Lesotho/South Africa/Italy)
Special Jury Award for Acting: Ben Whishaw- ‘Surge’ (U.K.)
World Cinema Documentary Jury Awards
The jury for which was Museum of the Moving Image film curator Eric Hynes, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture executive director Rima Mismar and filmmaker Nanfu Wang.
Grand Jury Prize: ‘Epicentro’- directed by Hubert Sauper (Austria/France/U.S.A.)
Jury Award for Directing: Iryna Tsilyk- The Earth Is Blue as an Orange’ (Ukraine/Lithuania)
Special Jury Award for Creative Storytelling: Benjamin Ree- ‘The Painter and the Thief’ (Norway)
Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Mircea Topoleanu and Radu Ciorniciuc- ‘Acasa, My Home’ (Romania/Germany/Finland)
Special Jury Award for Editing: Mila Aung-Thwin, Sam Soko, and Ryan Mullins- ‘Softie’ (Kenya)
Next Innovator Award
Filmmaker Gregg Araki is the one-person jury who awarded this award to ‘I Carry You With Me- directed by Heidi Ewing (U.S.A./Mexico)
Audience Awards
U.S. Dramatic: ‘Minari,’ directed by Lee Isaac Chung (U.S.A.)
U.S. Documentary: ‘Crip Camp’- directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht (U.S.A.)
World Cinema Dramatic: ‘Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares)’- directed by Fernanda Valadez (Mexico/Spain)
World Cinema Documentary: ‘The Reason I Jump’- directed by Jerry Rothwell (U.K.)
Next: ‘I Carry You With Me’- directed by Heidi Ewing (U.S.A./Mexico)
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
This award is a more specific award presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
American Museum of Natural History assistant curator Dr. Ruth Angus, actress Emily Mortimer, filmmaker and visual artist Jessica Oreck, scientist Ainissa Ramirez and filmmaker Michael Tyburski comprise the jury that voted on ‘Tesla’- directed by Michael Almereyda (U.S.A.) to win the award.
Short Film Jury Awards
The jury for this is comprised of actress Sian Clifford, Strand Releasing co-president and co-founder Marcus Hu and artist Cindy Sherman.
Grand Jury Prize: Sofia Alaoui- ‘So What If The Goats Die’ (France, Morocco)
Jury Award for U.S. Fiction: Terrance Daye- ‘-Ship: A Visual Poem’ (U.S.A.)
Jury Award for International Fiction: Dylan Holmes Williams- ‘The Devil’s Harmony’ (United Kingdom)
Jury Award for Non-fiction: Matthew Killip- ‘John Was Trying to Contact Aliens’ (U.S.A.)
Jury Award for Animation: Daria Kashcheeva- ‘Daughter’ (Czech Republic)
Special Jury Award for Acting: Sadaf Asgari- ‘Exam’ (Iran)
Special Jury Award for Directing: Michael Arcos- ‘Valerio’s Day Out’ (Colombia, U.S.A.)
Sundance Institute / Amazon Studios Producers Awards
Documentary Features: Diane Becker and Melanie Miller of Fishbowl Films- ‘Whirlybird’ (U.S.A.)
Narrative Features: Huriyyah Muhammad- ‘Farewell Amor’ (U.S.A.)