Birth Of A Nation and Sonita big winners at Sundance

Weiner and Sand Storm complete top prizes.

by Amber Wilkinson

Birth Of A Nation and Sonita were the big winners at the Sundance Film Festival this week.

Nate Parker's biographical drama about Nat Turner's slave rebellion - which sold to Fox Searchlight earlier this week for a record-breaking $17.5m (£12.3m) - won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the US Dramatic Competition.

Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami's portrait of an aspiring Afghan rapper in Iran, Sonita, also scooped both the Audience and Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary Competition.

The US Grand Jury Prize for Documentary went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's campaign trail film Weiner - which charted the attempts of Anthony Weiner to run for New York mayor in the face of a sexting scandal. The World Cinema Dramatic prize went to Elite Zexer for her engaging family drama about a young woman who finds herself torn between tradition and love.

Morris From America was also a big winner, taking home awards for best individual performance and screenwriting.

The full awards are below:

US DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: The Birth of a Nation

Audience Award: The Birth of a Nation

Directing: Daniel Scheinart and Daniel Kwan, Swiss Army Man

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Chad Hartigan, Morris From America

Special Jury Award: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, As You Are

Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance: Joe Seo, Spa Night

Special Jury Award for Individual Performance: Craig Robinson, Morris From America

Special Jury Award for Individual Performance: Melanie Lynskey, The Intervention

US DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Weiner

Audience Award: Jim: The James Foley Story

Directing Award: Roger Ross Williams, Life, Animated

Special Jury Award for Editing: Penny Lane and Thom Stylinski, NUTS!

Special Jury Award for Social Impact: Dawn Porter, Trapped

Special Jury Award for Writing: Robert Greene, Kate Plays Christine

Special Jury Award for Verite Filmmaking: Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, The Bad Kids

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Sand Storm

Audience Award: Between Sea and Land

Directing Award: Felix van Groeningen, Belgica

Screenwriting: Ana Katz and Ines Bortagaray, Mi amiga del parque

Special Jury Award for Acting: Vicky Hernandez and Manolo Cruz, Between Sea and Land

Special Jury Award for Unique Vision and Design: Agnieszka Smoczynska, The Lure

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Sonita

Audience Award: Sonita

Directing Award: Michal Marczak, All These Sleepless Nights

Special Jury Award for Editing: Mako Kamitsuna and John Maringouin, We Are X

Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Pieter-Jan De Pue, The Land of the Enlightened

Special Jury Award for Debut Feature: Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel, When Two Worlds Collide

ADDITIONAL AWARDS

Next Audience Award: First Girl I Loved

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: Embrace of the Serpent

Share this with others on...
News

Somewhere over the rainbow Arco director on how he managed to follow his dream with help from Natalie Portman

A place to belong Liam O Mochain on anthology filmmaking, hidden stories and making Abode

Bear necessities Jack Weisman and Gabriel Osio Vanden on working together and making naivety work for them in Nuisance Bear

In ascension Isaac 'Drift' Wright and Deon Taylor on climbing, spiritual development and Drift

Looking back Kei Ishikawa on memory, ambiguity and A Pale View Of Hills

Bearing witness Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman on balance and perspectives in Nuisance Bear

More news and features

We're currently bringing you news, reviews and more direct from BFI Flare and SXSW.



We're looking forward to Fantaspoa.



We've recently brought you coverage of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, the NY Rendezvous with French Cinema, the Glasgow Film Festival, the Berlinale, Sundance and Palm Springs.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

Don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.

It's a busy time for festivals and here's the latest from the spring events:

GSFF 19th edition opens in Glasgow with Downriver A Tiger

Cannes Barbra Streisand to receive honorary Palme d'Or

Thessaloniki Golden Alexanders announced

Cannes Honorary Palme d'Or to be presented to Peter Jackson

Cannes Park Chan-Wook named as Jury head