Sundance Film Festival Awards: ‘In the Summers’ and ‘Daughters’ Top Winners List

By Matt Donnelly

The Sundance Film Festival welcomed a new class of indie film stars on Friday, handing out its annual awards in Park City, Utah.

Taking the festival’s grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition was “In the Summers” from writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio. The film tells of two daughters who come of age navigating a turbulent but loving father during yearly visits to his home in New Mexico. “Porcelain War” won the U.S. Documentary competition, for its portrait of artists-turned-soldiers in the Ukraine.

Top prizes in the world cinematic category went to “A New Kind of Wilderness” for documentary, the tale of a wild-living family who must return to the modern world after an untimely death; “Sujo” won for narrative feature, about a 4-year-old orphan who may find it impossible to escape a future working for a drug cartel.

Incoming Sundance Film Festival director Eugene Hernandez began the ceremony but leading the audience in a single deep breath, and highlighted his team’s exhaustive efforts to program this milestone 40th anniversary edition.

“To the filmmakers here, you shared your films with us this week. Some of you may leave with a trophy, but you were all chosen from tens of thousands of submissions. Your work moved us,” Hernandez said.

Big winners also included Sean Wang’s coming-of-age story “Didi,” and the rousing documentary “Daughters.” Music video director Jack Begert, who won the NEXT Innovator Award for his feature film “Little Death” starring David Schwimmer and Dominic Fike, got a big laugh with a simple acceptance speech: “If you knew what they were saying on Letterboxd, you wouldn’t think we’d win either.”

Read the full list of Sundance winners:

WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION AWARDS

World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft
“Nocturnes,” Director and Producer: Anirban Dutta, Director: Anupama Srinivasan

World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” Director Johan Grimonprez

Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
“Ibelin,” Director Benjamin Ree

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
“A New Kind of Wilderness”

WORLD DRAMATIC COMPETITION AWARDS

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Original Music
“Handling the Undead,” Peter Raeburn

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting
Preeti Panigrahi, “Girls Will Be Girls”

Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
“In The Land Of Brothers,” Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
“Sujo”

NEXT AWARDS

NEXT Special Jury Award
“Desire Lines”

NEXT Innovator Award
“Little Death”

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Audience Award: NEXT
“Kneecap”

Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
“Ibelin”

Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
“Girls Will Be Girls”

Audience Award: U.S. Documentary
“Daughters”

Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
“Didi”

Festival Favorite Award
“Daughters”

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Sound
“Gaucho Gaucho”

U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art Of Change
“Union”

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary
“Frida,” Carla Gutiérrez

Directing Award: U.S. Documentary
“Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
“Porcelain War”

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance
Nico Parker, “Suncoast”

U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble
Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen, Chang Li Hua, “Didi”

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic
Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”

Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic
Alessandra Lacorazza, “In the Summers”

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
“In the Summers”