Sundance announces awards

Nanny, Utama, The Exiles and All That Breathes take Grand Jury Prizes

by Amber Wilkinson

Nanny won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize
Nanny won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Nikyatu Jusu won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance - in an awards 'ceremony' that was announced on Twitter - for her supernatural-inflected drama Nanny, about an undocumented Senegalese woman working for upper middle-class white couple in Manhattan.

Other films taking home prizes included Utama, The Exiles, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Navalny and All That Breathes.

Bolivian drama Utama, directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition gong.

The US and World documentary prizes were won by Ben Klein and Violet Columbus for The Exiles and Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes, respectively.

Dissident doc Navalny was named Festival Favourite - voted for by audiences across the festival, while audience awards went to Cha Cha Real Smooth, Navalny The Territory and Girl Picture, with Framing Agnes taking home both the audience award and NEXT prize.

The full list of winners is below:

Grand Jury Prizes

  • US Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Nikyatu Jusu for Nanny
  • US Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Ben Klein and Violet Columbus for The Exiles
  • World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Alejandro Loayza Grisi for Utama
  • World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes

Directing, Screenwriting and Editing

  • Directing Award: US Documentary: Reid Davenport for I Didn’t See You There
  • Directing Award: US Dramatic: Jamie Dack for Palm Trees And Power Lines
  • World Cinema Documentary: Simon Lereng Wilmont for A House Made Of Splinters
  • Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Maryna Er Gorbach for Klondike
  • Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: US Dramatic: K.D. Dávila for Emergency
  • Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: US Documentary: Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput for Fire Of Love

Special Jury Awards

  • US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision: Bradley Rust Gray for blood
  • US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington, and Michael K Williams for 892
  • US Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change: Aftershock
  • US Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision: Descendant
  • World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft The Territory
  • World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking: Midwives
  • World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit: Leonor Will Never Die
  • World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting: Teresa Sánchez for Dos Estaciones

Audience Awards

  • Audience Award: US Documentary: Navalny
  • Audience Award: US Dramatic: Cha Cha Real Smooth
  • Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Girl Picture
  • Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary: The Territory
  • Audience Award: NEXT: Framing Agnes

Short Film Awards

  • Short Film Grand Jury Prize: The Headhunter’s Daughter
  • Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction: IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME
  • Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction:Dania Bdeir for Warsha
  • Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction: Samir Karahoda for Displaced
  • Short Film Jury Award: Animation: Joe Hsieh for Night Bus
  • Short Film Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro, and Lorre Motta for A wild patience has taken me here
  • Short Film Special Jury Award: Screenwriting: Sara Driver for Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver

Additional Awards

  • Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: After Yang
  • Sundance Institute NHK Award: Hasan Hadi, The President’s Cake
  • Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Narrative Features: Amanda Marshall, God’s Country
  • Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Documentary Features: Su Kim, Free Chol Soo Lee
  • Sundance Institute/Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Documentary: Toby Shimin

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