The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is ending Tuesday night with a virtual award ceremony to honor the projects that won the jury awards in the festival’s competition categories. Comedian Patton Oswalt is the host of the event – “or as I am known at Sundance, discount Giamatti”, he joked when opening the show. The winners will be updated here throughout.
As with so many other live events, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Sundance to radically change the way it ran the 2021 festival, which traditionally runs over 10 days in Park City, Utah. Instead, this year’s full festival runs for six days and, along with the Park City exhibits, the festival has already hosted virtual exhibits, as well as drive-ins, art theaters and cultural institutions across the country, including in Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Ohio, New York, Texas and Puerto Rico.
The biggest winner of the World Dramatic Film Competition was “Hive”, which won three awards: the grand jury award, the audience award and the director award. From director Blerta Basholli, the film follows a single mother struggling to survive after her husband disappeared during the war in Kosovo.
The NEXT category awarded the public prize, presented by Shira Haas, to “My Belle, My Beauty”, about the unexpected meeting of two women in France who used to be polyamorous lovers; and the innovative award for animated fantasy, “Cryptozoo”.
The full list of winners will be updated below as they are announced.
US DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize:
Audience Award: “CODA”
Direction:
Waldo Salt Screenplay Award:
Special Jury Award for Best Actor: Clifton Collins Jr., “Jockey”
Special jury award for best set: The cast of “CODA” (Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant and Marlee Matlin)
USA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize:
Audience Award: “Summer Of Soul (… Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Television)”
Direction:
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno, “Homeroom”
Special jury award for emerging filmmaker: Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt, “Cusp”
Special jury award for non-fiction experimentation: Theo Anthony, “All Light, Everywhere”
DRAMATIC COMPETITION OF THE WORLD CINEMA
Grand Jury Prize: “Hive”
Audience Award: “Hive”
Direction award: Blerta Basholli, “Hive”
Special jury award for performance: Jesmark Scicluna, “Luzzu”
Special jury award for creative vision: “One for the Road,” Baz Poonpiriya
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “To run away”
Audience Award: “Writing with Fire”
Direction award: Hogir Hirori, “Sabaya”
Special jury award for making Vérité films: Camilla Nielsson, “president”
Special Jury Award for Impact on Change: Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh, “Writing With Fire”
OTHER AWARDS
NEXT Audience Award: Marion Hill, “My Belle, My Beauty”
NEXT Innovative Award: Dash Shaw (director), Jane Samborski (animation director), “Cryptozoo”
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Award: Alexis Gambis, “Son of the Monarchs”
Sundance Institute / Amazon Studios Producers Award for Narrative Resources: Natalie Qasabian, “Run”
Sundance Institute / Amazon Studios Producers Documentary Award: Nicole Salazar, “Philly DA”
NHK Award from Sundance Institute: Meryam Joobeur, “Maternity”