A couple of days are left in this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but in typical fashion the Jury and Audience award winners are announced once the premieres are over. In a bit of a surprise, Hailey Gates’ directorial debut Atropia won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize Dramatic while James Sweeney’s Twinless won the Audience Award.
Atropia stars Alia Shawkat as a struggling actress playing an Iraqi in a fictional Iraqi city set up for training during the Iraq War. The film also stars Callum Turner, Chloe Sevigny, Tim Heidecker, Chloe East, and Jane Levy.
Twinless had a big Sundance, coming away with two awards. Along with the Audience Award for Drama, star Dylan O’Brien received the Special Jury Award for Acting. O’Brien stars alongside Sweeney in the story of two young men who become friends in a support group for twinless twins. Also in the cast are Lauren Graham and Aisling Franciosi.
The Grand Jury Prize for Documentary went to Seeds, about the legacy of Black generational farmers in the American South.
The Directing Award: Dramatic went to Rashad Frett for his debut feature, Ricky. Frett had a buzzing world premiere after spending two years with Sundance expanding on the 2023 short film that was also part of the festival.
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby. Victor also directed the film and starred, with Barry Jenkins aboard as a producer.
The complete list of Sundance award winners is below! Go here for our complete Sundance 2025 coverage!
US DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Presented by Celine Song
US Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Atropia / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Hailey Gates, Producers: Naima Abed, Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Lana Kim, Jett Steiger)
Directing Award: US Dramatic
Rashad Frett for Ricky / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Rashad Frett, Screenwriter: Lin Que Ayoung, Producers: Pierre M. Coleman, Simon TaufiQue, Sterling Brim, DC Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Josh Peters, Mark Steele)
S Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
Plainclothes / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Carmen Emmi, Producers: Colby Cote, Arthur Landon, Eric Podwall, Vanessa Pantley)
US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting
Dylan O’Brien for Twinless / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: James Sweeney, Producer: David Permut)
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: US Dramatic
Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Eva Victor, Producers: Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins)
US DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Presented by Steve Bognar & Marcia Smith
US Documentary Special Jury Award for Archival Storytelling
Selena y Los Dinos / U.S.A. (Director: Isabel Castro, Producers: Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, J. Daniel Torres, David Blackman, Simran Singh)
US Documentary Special Jury Award
Life After / U.S.A. (Director: Reid Davenport, Producer: Colleen Cassingham)
Directing Award: US Documentary
Geeta Gandbhir for The Perfect Neighbor / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Geeta Gandbhir, Producers: Nikon Kwantu, Alisa Payne, Sam Bisbee)
US Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Seeds / U.S.A. (Director and Producer: Brittany Shyne, Producers: Danielle Varga, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon)
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Presented by Raúl Esparza
Audience Award: US Dramatic
Twinless / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: James Sweeney, Producer: David Permut) —
Audience Award: NEXT
East of Wall / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Kate Beecroft, Producers: Lila Yacoub, Melanie Ramsayer, Shannon Moss)
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
Prime Minister / U.S.A. (Directors: Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz, Producers: Cass Avery, Leon Kirkbeck, Gigi Pritzker, Rachel Shane, Katie Peck)
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
DJ Ahmet /North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia (Director and Screenwriter: Georgi M. Unkovski, Producers: Ivan Unkovski, Ivana Shekutkoska)
Audience Award: US Documentary
André is an Idiot / U.S.A. (Director: Anthony Benna, Producers: André Ricciardi, Tory Tunnell, Joshua Altman, Stelio Kitrilakis, Ben Cotner)
NEXT AWARDS
Presented by Jack Begert
NEXT Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Joel Alfonso Vargas, Producer: Paolo Maria Pedullà
NEXT Innovator Award
Zodiac Killer Project / U.S.A., U.K. (Director and Producer: Charlie Shackleton, Producers: Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing)
WORLD DRAMATIC COMPETITION AWARDS
Presented by Wanuri Kahiu
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) /India, U.K., Canada (Director and Screenwriter: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, Producers: Neeraj Churi, Mohamed Khaki, Kaushik Ray, Hareesh Reddypalli, Naren Chandavarkar, Sidharth Meer)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Writing
Two Women / Canada (Director: Chloé Robichaud, Screenwriter and Producer: Catherine Léger, Producer: Martin Paul-Hus)
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Alireza Khatami for The Things You Kill /Turkey, France, Poland, Canada (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Alireza Khatami, Producers: Elisa Sepulveda Ruddoff, Cyriac Auriol, Mariusz Włodarski, Michael Solomon)
WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION AWARDS
Presented by Cristina Costantini
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار) / Iran, Germany, U.S.A., Netherlands, Qatar, Chile, Canada (Directors and Producers: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award
Mr. Nobody Against Putin /Denmark, Czech Republic (Director and Screenwriter: David Borenstein, Producer: Helle Faber
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression
Coexistence, My Ass! / U.S.A., France(Director and Producer: Amber Fares, Screenwriter and Producer: Rachel Leah Jones, Screenwriter: Rabab Haj Yahya, Producer: Valérie Montmartin)
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
Mstyslav Chernov for 2000 Meters to Andriivka
SHORTS PROGRAM AWARDS
Presented virtually by Isaac Mizrahi
Short Film Grand Jury Prize
Theo Panagopoulos for The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing / U.K.
Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing
Loren Waters for Tiger
Short Film Special Jury Award for Animation Directing
May Kindred-Boothby for The Eating of an Orange
Short Film Jury Award: Animation
Natalia León for Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction
Christopher Radcliff for We Were The Scenery
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
Chheangkea for Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites
Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction
Jazmin Garcia for Trokas Duras
Retroactive Awards
Presented by Kim Yutani
The Sundance Institute | Amazon MGM Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction : Danielle Varga for Seeds
The Sundance Institute | Amazon MGM Studios Producers Award for Fiction: Joe Pirro for The Wedding Banquet
The 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: SALLY
