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Sundance hands out awards to festival’s best work

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Radha Blank reacts to winning the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award for her film The 40-Year-Old Version at the Awards Night Ceremony for the Sundance Film Festival in Kimball Junction on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020.

2020 SUNDANCE WINNERS

Here are the winners of the awards given out Saturday at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival (updated as they are announced):

Grand Jury Prize

U.S. Dramatic • “Minari,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung.

U.S. Documentary • “Boys State," directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss.

World Cinema Dramatic • “Yalda, A Night For Forgiveness” (Iran), directed by Massoud Bakhshi.

World Cinema Documentary • “Epicentro” (Cuba), directed by Hubert Sauper.

——

Audience Award

U.S. Dramatic • “Minari,” directed by Lee Isaac Chung.

U.S. Documentary • “Crip Camp,” directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht.

World Cinema Dramatic • “Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares)” (Mexico), directed by Fernanda Valadez.

World Cinema Documentary • “The Reason I Jump” (UK), directed by Jerry Rothwell.

Next • “I Carry You With Me,” directed by Heidi Ewing.

——

Directing Prize

U.S. Dramatic • Radha Blank, “The 40-Year-Old Version.”

U.S. Documentary • Garrett Bradley, “Time.”

World Cinema Dramatic • Maïmouna Doucouré, "Cuties’ (France).

World Cinema Documentary • Iryna Tsilyk, “The Earth Is as Blue as an Orange” (Ukraine).

——

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

U.S. Dramatic • Edson Oda, “Nine Days.”

——

Next Innovator Award

(Awarded by a one-person jury: Filmmaker Gregg Araki.)

• “I Carry You With Me,” directed by Heidi Ewing.

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Special Jury Prizes

U.S. Dramatic • for ensemble cast, to “Charm City Kings,” directed by Angel Manuel Soto.

U.S. Dramatic • for auteur filmmaking, to Josephine Decker, for “Shirley.”

U.S. Dramatic • for neorealism, to "Never Rarely Sometimes Always, directed by Eliza Hittman.

U.S. Documentary • for emerging filmmaker, to Arthur Jones, for “Feels Good Man.”

U.S. Documentary • for social impact filmmaking, to “The Fight,” directed by Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres.

U.S. Documentary • for editing, to Tyler H. Walk, for “Welcome to Chechnya.”

U.S. Documentary • for innovation in nonfiction storytelling, to “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” directed by Kirsten Johnson.

World Cinema Dramatic • for screenplay, to Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero, “Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares)” (Mexico).

World Cinema Dramatic • for acting, to Ben Whishaw, “Surge” (United Kingdom).

World Cinema Dramatic • for visionary filmmaking, to “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” (Lesotho), directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

World Cinema Documentary • for editing, to Mila Aung-Thwin, Sam Soko and Ryan Mullins, for “Softie" (Kenya).

World Cinema Documentary • for cinematography, to Mircea Topoleanu and Radu Ciornicciuc, “Acasa, My Home" (Romania).

World Cinema Documentary • for creative storytelling, to “The Painter and the Thief” (Norway), directed by Benjamin Ree.

——

Alfred P. Sioan Prize

(previously announced)

• “Tesla,” directed by Michael Almereyda.

——

Short Film Prizes

(previously announced)

Grand Jury Prize • “So What if the Goats Die” (France/Morocco), directed by Sofia Alaoui.

Jury Award for U.S. Fiction • “-Ship: A Visual Poem,” directed by Terrence Daye.

Jury Award for International Fiction • “The Devil’s Harmony” (United Kingdom), directed by Dylan Holmes Williams.

Jury Award for Non-Fiction • “John Was Trying to Contact Aliens,” directed by Matthew Kilip.

Jury Award for Animation • “Daughter” (Czech Republic), directed by Daria Kashcheeva.

Jury Award for Acting • Sadaf Asgari, in “Exam” (Iran), directed by Sonia K. Hadad.

Jury Award for Directing • Michael Arcos, “Valerio’s Day Out” (United States/Colombia).


(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Skating Polly! performs at the Awards Night Ceremony for the Sundance Film Festival in Kimball Junction on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020.

Park City • A former University of Utah film student stood on the stage of the Basin Fieldhouse in Park City, holding two of the top prizes from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival for his story of an immigrant family pursuing the American dream.

Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung’s drama “Minari,” about a Korean family trying to make a farm in Arkansas in the 1980s, won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Saturday night’s Awards Night ceremony.

When receiving the first award, Chung thanked the Sundance audiences who embraced the film.

“A lady at the screening today gave me a caramel that she made,” Chung said. He also thanked his production company, Plan B, and distributor, A24 Films. “They believed when sometimes I didn’t believe,” Chung said.

The Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary went to “Boys State,” a look inside a high-school mock government event in Texas that mirrored current political problems.

Jesse Moss, who directed the film with his wife, Amanda McBaine, said the Texas Boys State event was “a moment of civil discourse when we profoundly need it.

”Winning the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary was the festival’s opening night film, “Crip Camp,” a chronicle of a 1970s summer camp for disabled kids — and how many of those kids grew up to lead the civil rights movement for people with disabilities.

A Utah-made film won one of the major awards. Edson Oda won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for “Nine Days,” an existential drama about a man tasked with interviewing “souls” and determining which one should become a human.

Two movies about immigrants from Mexico won double awards.

Director Heidi Ewing’s “I Carry You With Me,” which took both awards in the Next category, given to more experimental and avant-garde films. The cross-border romance won the Audience Award, and the Next Innovator Award, picked by a one-person jury: Filmmaker Gregg Araki.

“Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares)," about a Mexican mother seeking her missing son, won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition. It also received a Special Jury Award for the screenplay by Fernanda Valadez (who directed) and Astrid Rondero.

The winning films will screen one last time Sunday at venues in Park City. Utah locals can see some of the big films at free “Best of Fest” screenings Sunday afternoon and evening in Park City, Salt Lake City and the Sundance resort.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lee Isaac Chung reacts to winning the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize for his film Minari at the Awards Night Ceremony for the Sundance Film Festival in Kimball Junction on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020.