Taika Waititi did the honours, hosting the awards, which went to titles of which few will be seen here outside of festival screenings.
Ahead of the weekend ceremony, the short film award winners were announced, as were winners of various Sundance initiatives and programmes (listed below).
At the feature awards, The Birth of a Nation and Sonita won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for their respective sections, demonstrating for the fourth year running that normal filmgoing folk have no business being in Utah in January.
The only winner with a solid Kiwi connection was expat actress Melanie Lynskey, taking a Special Jury Award for Individual Performance for her performance in Clea Duvall’s ensemble drama The Intervention (pictured, top).
This year’s festival presented 123 features and 72 short films, chosen from 12,793 submissions. The Sundance Film Festival ran 21 – 31 January.
The feature award winners were:
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Weiner (Directors: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg)
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
The Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
The Birth of a Nation (Director and screenwriter: Nate Parker)
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
The Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
Sonita (Director: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami) Germany, Iran, Switzerland
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Sand Storm(Director and screenwriter: Elite Zexer) Israel
The Audience Award: U.S. Documentary
Jim: The James Foley Story (Director: Brian Oakes)
The Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
(Director: Carlos del Castillo, Screenwriter: Manolo Cruz) Colombia
The Audience Award: NEXT
First Girl I Loved (Director and screenwriter: Kerem Sanga) USA
The Directing Award: U.S. Documentary
Roger Ross Williams for Life, Animated
The Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan for Swiss Army Man
The Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
Michal Marczak for All These Sleepless Nights, Poland
The Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Felix van Groeningen for Belgica, Belgium, France, Netherlands
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic
Chad Hartigan for Morris from America
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing
Penny Lane and Thom Stylinski for NUTS!
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for For Social Impact Filmmaking
Trapped (Director: Dawn Porter)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Writing
Kate Plays Christine (Director: Robert Greene)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking
The Bad Kids (Directors: Keith Fulton, Lou Pepe)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award
As You Are (Director: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance
Joe Seo for Spa Night
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Awards for Individual Performance
Melanie Lynskey in The Intervention
Craig Robinson in Morris from America
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Debut Feature
Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel for When Two Worlds Collide, Peru
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography
Pieter-Jan De Pue for The Land of the Enlightened, Belgium
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing
Mako Kamitsuna and John Maringouin for We Are X, United Kingdom, U.S.A., Japan
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting
Vicky Hernandéz and Manolo Cruz in Between Sea and Land, Colombia
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting
Ana Katz and Inés Bortagaray for Mi Amiga del Parque, Argentina, Uruguay
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Unique Vision and Design
Agnieszka Smoczyńska for The Lure, Poland
GLOBAL FILMMAKING AWARDS
August, Writer-Director: Armando Capo, Cuba
Insha’ Allah, Writer-Director: Geetu Mohandas, India
Sicilian Ghost Story, Writer-Directors: Antonio Piazza, Fabio Grassadonia, Italy
The Treasure, Writer-Director: Abdellah Taia, Moroccoa
SLOAN SCIENCE IN FILM AWARDS:
To an outstanding feature film about science or technology
Embrace of the Serpent, by Ciro Guerra
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | AMAZON STUDIOS PRODUCERS AWARDS
Sara Murphy and Adele Romanski, producers of Morris From America
Julie Goldman, executive producer of Weiner and Life, Animated
