Sundance’s top prizes go to ‘In the Summers’ and ‘Porcelain War’
The Sundance Film Festival announced its annual awards during a presentation in Park City, Utah, on Friday morning. “In the Summers,” written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, won the U.S. dramatic competition’s grand jury prize for its tale of two sisters’ visits to their father in New Mexico. “Porcelain War,” directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, took the U.S. documentary grand jury prize. The film is a check-in with artists living amid the war in Ukraine.
Shifting to world cinema, the dramatic grand jury prize went to Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s “Sujo,” a coming-of-age story unspooling in the context of Mexican drug cartel violence. The documentary grand jury prize was awarded to Silje Evensmo Jacobsen for “A New Kind of Wilderness,” a look at a family living in a remote forest in Norway adjusting to modern life.
The NEXT innovator award went to Jack Begert’s “Little Death,” a tale of addiction set in Los Angeles.
Only the fifth person to lead the festival in its 40-year history, Eugene Hernandez arrives after celebrated stints at Lincoln Center, the New York Film Festival and IndieWire.
The festival favorite award — eligible for films across all sections of the lineup — went to “Daughters” from the U.S. documentary competition, a chronicling of four young girls growing up while their fathers serve sentences in prison.
Audience awards went to “Dìdi (弟弟),” directed by Sean Wang, who was nominated for an Academy Award this week for the documentary short “Nai Nai & Wài Pó.” The audience award for U.S. documentary also went to the jury-honored “Daughters,” with the audience award for the world documentary competition going to the Norwegian film “Ibelin” directed by Benjamin Ree. The world cinema‘s dramatic audience award went to “Girls Will Be Girls” directed by Shuchi Talati, set at an all-girls’ boarding school in the Himalayas. The NEXT audience award was won by Rich Peppiatt’s “Kneecap,” a profile of the Irish-language rap trio of the same name.
Other jury awards went to Lacorazza Samudio for directing “In the Summers” and Jesse Eisenberg for screenwriting for “A Real Pain.” Special jury awards went to “Dìdi (弟弟)” for ensemble performance and, for breakthrough performance, to Nico Parker for “Suncoast.”
In the U.S. documentary competition, Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie won the directing prize for “Sugarcane,” Carla Gutiérrez won for editing “Frida,” and a special jury prize was awarded for the sound work on “Gaucho Gaucho.” A special jury award for the “art of change” went to “Union.”
In the world cinema dramatic competition, an additional award went to Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi for directing “In the Land of Brothers.” A special jury prize for original music was issued to Peter Raeburn for “Handling the Undead” and a special jury prize for acting went to Preeti Panigrahi for “Girls Will Be Girls.”
For world cinema documentary, Benjamin Ree won the directing prize for “Ibelin.” A special jury award for craft went to “Nocturnes.” A prize for cinematic innovation went to Johan Grimonprez for “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.” A special jury prize for NEXT went to “Desire Lines.”
The 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival concludes on Sunday.
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
