Minari won Sundance
The Sundance Film Festival is officially over, closing out yet another busy week and a half of nonstop movies. I managed to catch 41 films this year, including almost all the Premieres titles and most of the U.S. Dramatic Competition films. I enjoyed running into Murtada a few times and noting how much we disagreed on a few films (one of his least favorites is on my top ten list, and I hated Zola, which he loved).
After the jump, the official awards and the best of what I saw...
OFFICIAL PRIZES
Random Prizes
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: “Tesla”
Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing: Carla Guttierez and Affonso Gonçalves
Producers Award: Huriyyah Muhammad, “Farewell Amor”
Short Film Grand Jury Prize: “So What If the Goats Die,” Sofia Alaoui
Documentary Prizes
World Cinema Doc Jury Award, Editing: “Softie,” Mila Aung-Thwin, Sam Soko, and Ryan Mullins
World Cinema Doc Jury Award, Cinematography: “Acasa, My Home,” Mircea Topoleanu and Radu Ciorniciuc
World Cinema Doc Jury Award, Creative Storytelling: “The Painter and the Thief,” Benjamin Ree
World Cinema Doc, Directing: Iryna Tsilyk, “The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”
World Cinema Doc Grand Jury Prize: Hubert Sauper, “Epicentro”
Audience Award, World Cinema Doc: “The Reason I Jump”
Audience Award, U.S. Documentary: “Crip Camp”
U.S. Doc Jury Award, Emerging Filmmaker: Arthur Jones, “Feels Good Man”
U.S. Doc Jury Award, Social Impact Filmmaking: Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres, “The Fight”
U.S. Doc Jury Award, Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling: Kirsten Johnson, “Dick Johnson Is Dead”
U.S. Doc Jury Award, Editing: Tyler H. Walk, “Welcome to Chechnya”
Directing Award, U.S. Documentary: Garrett Bradley, “Time”
U.S. Grand Jury Prize Doc: “Boys State,” Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine
Dramatic Prizes
I Carry You With Me, a gay romantic drama, was a festival hit. SPC picked it up.
NEXT Audience Award: “I Carry You With Me,” Heidi Ewing
NEXT Innovator Award: “I Carry You With Me,” Heidi Ewing
World Cinema Jury Award, Acting: Ben Whishaw, “Surge”
World Cinema Jury Award, Visionary Filmmaking: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection”
World Cinema Jury Award, Best Screenplay: Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero, “Identifying Features”
World Cinema Directing Award: Maïmouna Doucouré, “Cuties”
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: “Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness,” Massoud Bakhshi
Audience Award, World Cinema: “Identifying Features”
Audience Award: “Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung
U.S. Jury Award, Ensemble Cast: “Charm City Kids”
U.S. Jury Award, Auteur Filmmaking: Josephine Decker, “Shirley”
U.S. Jury Award, Neorealism: Eliza Hittman, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Edson Oda, “Nine Days”
Directing Award: U.S. Radha Blank, “The 40-Year-Old Version”
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: “Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung.
Abe’s 'Jury-of-One' Top Ten Sundance 2020 Films
Clare Dunn stars in and co-wrote "Herself"
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Promising Young Woman – Carey Mulligan as a femme fatale going after male predators
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Herself – an incredible Irish film bought by Amazon about a woman building a house to escape her abusive spouse
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Wendy – Benh Zeitlin’s wondrously imaginative update of Peter Pan
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Summertime – an ensemble spoken-word poetry extravaganza
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Nine Days – a sci-fi story about people auditioning for the chance to be alive, winner of a screenwriting prize
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Palm Springs – a hilarious time-loop comedy with Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti
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Black Bear – a trippy night spent in the woods with three volatile people
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The Killing of Two Lovers – Clayne Crawford as a man trying to hold on to his family
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Blast Beat – two Colombian brothers move to Atlanta with big dreams
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The 40-Year-Old Version – a struggling playwright considers a career in rapping. It took home a directing award
And some personal prizes...
Wendy by Benh Zeitlin
Best Director: Benh Zeitlin (Wendy)
Best Actor: Clayne Crawford (The Killing of Two Lovers)
Best Actress: Clare Dunne (Herself)
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Kim (Minari)
Best Supporting Actress: Sarah Gadon (Black Bear)
Best Screenplay: The 40-Year-Old Version
Best Cinematography: Wendy
Best Ensemble Cast: Summertime
I can also highly recommend two other films about immigrants: Minari, which took home both the U.S. Dramatic Competition Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for its story of a Korean family in Arkansas, and Farewell Amor, about an Angolan mother and daughter reunited with their husband and father, respectively, in New York City after seventeen years apart.
And though not everyone agrees, especially those who liked Force Majeure more than I did, the American update Downhill is also great, and it’s one of a handful of films already slated for release in the next few months, bringing the world of Sundance to an audience around the country.