Sundance announces juries

Hawke, Rossellini, Rees and Araki all feature

by Amber Wilkinson

Dee Rees is joining the US Dramatic Competition jury
Dee Rees is joining the US Dramatic Competition jury Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Sundance Film Festival has announced the 25 jurors who will award the event's 31 accolades across six sections this year.

The US Dramatic Competition jury will feature Rodrigo García, whose Four Good Days features in this year's festival and fellow directors Dee Rees, who is bringing The Last Thing He Wanted, and Wash Westmorland, who brought Colette in 2018. They will be joined by actor/director Ethan Hawke, whose Blaze played the 2018 festival, and veteran star Isabella Rossellini, who created Sundance Channel series Green Porno.

The World Cinema Dramatic Competition jury also contains well-established names - Wadjda director Haifaa Al Mansour, Brazilian actor-turned director Wagner Moura - who made his directorial debut with Marighella in Berlin last year - and Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher (Happy As Lazzaro, Daughter Of Mine)

The US Documentary jury will feature Kimberly Reed, whose Dark Money was in competition in 2018, Free Solo director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, along with San Francisco Film Festival director of programming Rachel Rosen, senior vice president of CNN Films Courtney Sexton and Noland Walker, who is vice president of content at ITVS.

And MoMA curator Eric Hynes will feature on the World Documentary jury, alongside executive director of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture Rima Mismar and US-based Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang, whose One Child Nation was a critical hit at last year's festival, winning the Grand Jury Prize.

There won't be too much debate over who wins the NEXT award, as Kaboom director Gregg Araki reigns supreme in that jury.

Fleabag star Sian Clifford, Strand Releasing co-founder Marcus Hu and contemporary artist Cindy Sherman will decide the short film awards.

The Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize jury comprises astrophysicist Dr Ruth Angus, Mary Poppins Returns star Emily Mortimer, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo director Jessica Oreck, Michael Tyburski, whose debut feature The Sound Of Silence played at last year's festival and materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez.

The festival will run from January 23 to February 2 in Utah, with the short film awards announced on January 28 and the feature awards handed out on February 1.

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