The 2018 Sundance Film Festival has come to a close, and I’ll be honest with you…I don’t think there was an obvious Oscar contender in the bunch. Granted, I didn’t see everything, but from what I saw and took in from others this was a pretty weak lineup. And I think that’s reflected in the lack of major acquisitions this year.
That said, the end of the festival means it’s time to hand out the Audience and Jury Awards. Picking up the Grand Jury Prize was Desiree Akhavan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post starring Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane, a film that I completely missed out on. The Audience Award went to the race-based drama Burden, which I lambasted in my review. So there’s that. I heard a ton about Three Identical Strangers, so it doesn’t surprise me it won for Storytelling, and John Cho’s Search cleaned up in the special categories. That one got picked up and it may be the most talked-about movie from the festival because of its computer screen-centered premise. Finally, Reed Morano’s excellent I Think We’re Alone Now got some love, as well.
Full list of winners below, plus links to reviews of the films I caught.
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: Desireee Akhavan, “The Miseducation Of Cameron Post”
Audience Award: “Burden” (review)
Directing: Sara Colangelo, “The Kindergarten Teacher”
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Christina Choe, “Nancy”
Special Jury Award for Outstanding First Feature: Reid Marcus Green, “Monsters And Men” (review)
Special Jury Award Special Achievement in Filmmaking: Reed Morano, “I Think We’re Alone Now” (review)
Special Jury Award Achievement in Acting: Benjamin Dickey, “Blaze”
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: Derek Doneen, “Kailash”
Directing: Alexandria Bomback, “Oh Her Shoulders”
Audience Award: “The Sentence”
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking: Stephen Maing, “Crime And Punishment”
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: RaMell Ross, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking: Bing Liu, “Minding the Gap”
Special Jury Award for Storytelling: “Three Identical Strangers”
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “Butterflies”
Audience Award: “The Guilty”
Directing Award: Ísold Uggadóttir, “And Breathe Normally”
Special Jury Award for Acting: Valeria Bertucecelli, “The Queen of Fear,”
Special Jury Award for Screenwriting: Julio Chavezmontes & Sebastián Hofmann, “Time Share”
Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting: “Dead Pigs”
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “Of Fathers and Sons”
Audience Award: “This Is Home”
Directing Award: Sandi Tan, “Shirkers”
Special Jury Award: Steven Loveridge, “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.”
Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Maxim Arbugaev, Peter Indergand, “Genesis 2.0”
Special Jury Award for Editing: Maxim Pozdorovkin & Matvey Kulakov, “Our New President”
NEXT Audience Award: “Search”
NEXT Innovator Award: (tie) “Night Comes On” and “We the Animals”
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: “Search”
Sundance Institute NHK Award: Remi Weekes, “His House”
Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Awards: Katy Chevingy & Marilyn Ness (“Dark Money”) AND Sev Ohanian (“Search”)
Sundance Open Borders Fellowship Presented by Netflix: Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”) AND Chaitanya Tamhane AND Tatiana Huezo (“Night on Fire”)
