The 2022 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close, with the Grand Jury and Audience Award winners announced today. Similar to last year, the winners were revealed on Twitter. And if I had to choose a film that really took the festival, it was the “secret” film, documentary Navalny, which won the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary as well as the overall Festival Favorite.
Another Audience Award winner for U.S. Dramatic went to Cooper Raif’s Cha Cha Real Smooth, which stars Raif alongside Dakota Johnson. That film was recently acquired by Apple for a whopping $15M. Girl Picture, a coming-of-age drama from Finnish filmmaker Alli Haapasalo, won in the World Cinema Dramatic.
In the Grand Jury Prize section, the U.S. Dramatic award went to Nanny, the Michelle Monaghan/Anna Diop starrer that marks Nikyatu Jusu‘s feature directorial debut. Jury prize for directing went to writer/director Jamie Drack for Palm Trees and Power Lines, while the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Emergency, directed by Carey Williams and penned by KD Davila.
Many of these films have been reviewed by us and you can find them here.
The full list of Sundance 2022 award winners is below.
GRAND JURY PRIZES
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – “Nanny” / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Nikyatu Jusu, Producers: Nikkia Moulterie, Daniela Taplin Lundberg)
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – “The Exiles” / U.S.A. (Directors: Ben Klein, Violet Columbus, Producers: Maria Chiu, Ben Klein, Violet Columbus)
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – “Utama” / Bolivia/Uruguay/France (Director and Screenwriter: Alejandro Loayza Grisi, Producers: Santiago Loayza Grisi, Federico Moreira, Marcos Loayza, Jean-Baptiste Bailly-Maitre)
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – “All That Breathes” / India, U.K. (Director and Producer: Shaunak Sen, Producers: Aman Mann, Teddy Leifer)
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary – “Navalny” / U.S.A. (Director: Daniel Roher, Producers: Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Shane Boris)
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic – “Cha Cha Real Smooth” / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Cooper Raiff, Producers: Dakota Johnson, Ro Donnelly, Erik Feig, Jessica Switch, Cooper Raiff)
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic – “Girl Picture” / Finland (Director: Alli Haapasalo, Screenwriters: Ilona Ahti, Daniela Hakulinen, Producers: Leila Lyytikäinen, Elina Pohjola)
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary – “The Territory” / Brazil/Denmark/United States (Director: Alex Pritz, Producers: Will N. Miller, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, Anonymous)
Audience Award: NEXT – “Framing Agnes” / Canada, U.S.A. (Director: Chase Joynt, Producers: Samantha Curley, Shant Joshi, Chase Joynt)
FESTIVAL FAVORITE AWARD
“Navalny” / U.S.A. (Director: Daniel Roher, Producers: Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Shane Boris)
JURY AWARDS FOR DIRECTING, SCREENWRITING & EDITING
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary – “I Didn’t See You There” / U.S.A. (Director: Reid Davenport, Producer: Keith Wilson)
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic – “Palm Trees and Power Lines” / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Jamie Dack, Screenwriter: Audrey Findlay, Producers: Leah Chen Baker, Jamie Dack
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary – “A House Made Of Splinters” / Denmark (Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont, Producer: Monica Hellström)
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic – “KLONDIKE” / Ukraine/Turkey (Director and Screenwriter: Maryna Er Gorbach, Producers: Maryna Er Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er, Sviatoslav BulakovskyI)
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic – “Emergency” / U.S.A. (Director: Carey Williams, Screenwriter: KD Davila, Producers: Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, John Fischer)
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary – “Fire Of Love” / U.S.A. (Director: Sara Dosa, Producers: Shane Boris, Ina Fichman, Sara Dosa)
SPECIAL JURY AWARDS
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision – “blood” / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Bradley Rust Gray, Producers: David Urrutia, Bradley Rust Gray, So Yong Kim, Elika Portnoy, Alex Orlovsky, Jonathon Komack Martin)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast – John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington, and Michael K. Williams for “892” / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Abi Damaris Corbin, Screenwriter: Kwame Kwei-Armah, Producers: Ashley Levinson, Salman Al-Rashid, Sam Frohman, Kevin Turen, Mackenzie Fargo)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change – “Aftershock” / U.S.A. (Directors and Producers: Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision – “Descendant” / U.S.A. (Director: Margaret Brown, Producers: Essie Chambers, Kyle Martin)
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft – “The Territory” / Brazil/Denmark/United States (Director: Alex Pritz, Producers: Will N. Miller, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, Anonymous)
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking – “Midwives” / Myanmar (Director: Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing, Producers: Bob Moore, Ulla Lehman, Mila Aung-Thwin, Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit – “Leonor Will Never Die” / Philippines (Director and Screenwriter: Martika Ramirez Escobar, Producers: Monster Jimenez, Mario Cornejo)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting – Teresa Sánchez for “Dos Estaciones” / Mexico (Director and Screenwriter: Juan Pablo González, Screenwriters: Ana Isabel Fernández, Ilana Coleman, Producers: Jamie Gonçalves, Ilana Coleman, Bruna Haddad, Makena Buchanan)
NEXT INNOVATOR AWARD PRESENTED BY ADOBE
Chase Joynt for “Framing Agnes” / Canada, U.S.A. (Director: Chase Joynt, Producers: Samantha Curley, Shant Joshi, Chase Joynt
SHORT FILM AWARDS PRESENTED BY XRM Media
Short Film Grand Jury Prize – “The Headhunter’s Daughter” / Philippines (Director and Screenwriter: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, Producer: Hannah Schierbeek)
Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction – “IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME” / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Walter Thompson-Hernández, Producer: Stuart McIntyre)
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction – “Warsha” / France/Lebanon (Director and Screenwriter: Dania Bdeir, Producer: Coralie Dias)
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction – “Displaced” / Kosovo (Director and Screenwriter: Samir Karahoda, Producer: Eroll Bilibani)
Short Film Jury Award: Animation – “Night Bus” / Taiwan (Director and Screenwriter: Joe Hsieh, Producers: Wan Lin Lee, Joe Hsieh, Joe Chan)
Short Film Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast – Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro, and Lorre Motta for “A wild patience has taken me here” / Brazil (Director and Screenwriter: Érica Sarmet, Producers: Lívia Perez, Silvia Sobral, Érica Sarmet)
Short Film Special Jury Award: Screenwriting – Sara Driver for “Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver” / United States (Directors: Lewie Kloster, Noah Kloster, Screenwriter: Sara Driver)
The 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, presented to an outstanding feature film about science or technology, was presented to After Yang. The filmmakers received a $20,000 cash award from Sundance Institute with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction went to Su Kim for “Free Chol Soo Lee” (U.S. Documentary Competition).
The Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction went to Amanda Marshall “God’s Country” (Premieres).
The Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction went to Toby Shimin, and the Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction went to Dody Dorn.
The Sundance Institute | NHK Award went to Hasan Hadi for his film, “The President’s Cake.”
