The 2019 Sundance Film Festival is in the books, and this past weekend, winners were announced for jury prizes and audience awards. Taking home the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award was the crowd-pleasingBrittany Runs a Marathon. The film starsJillian Bellas a woman who resolves to get her life in order by taking up running and slowly learns to break down the barriers that have caused her to push people away. It’s a really sweet and funny movie, and you’ll likely get to see it later this year since Amazon Studios picked it up for $14 million. Over on the jury side of the U.S. Dramatic competition,Clemencytook home the top prize. The film starsAlfre Woodardas a prison warden whose years of executing inmates has taken a psychological toll on her.
Check out the full list of winners below and be sure to click here for all of our Sundance 2019 coverage.
TheU.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentarywas presented by Rachel Grady to: Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, forOne Child Nation/ China, U.S.A. (Directors: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Producers: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christoph Jörg, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn) — After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China’s one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.
TheU.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramaticwas presented by Damien Chazelle to: Chinonye Chukwu, forClemency/ U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Chinonye Chukwu, Producers: Bronwyn Cornelius, Julian Cautherley, Peter Wong, Timur Bekbosunov) — Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.Cast: Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge, Richard Schiff, Wendell Pierce, Richard Gunn, Danielle Brooks.
TheWorld Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentarywas presented by Verena Paravel to: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, forHoneyland/ Macedonia (Directors: Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska, Producer: Atanas Georgiev) — When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
TheWorld Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramaticwas presented by Jane Campion to: Joanna Hogg, forThe Souvenir/ United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Joanna Hogg, Producers: Luke Schiller, Joanna Hogg) — A shy film student begins finding her voice as an artist while navigating a turbulent courtship with a charismatic but untrustworthy man. She defies her protective mother and concerned friends as she slips deeper and deeper into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship which comes dangerously close to destroying her dreams.Cast: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton.
TheAudience Award: U.S. Documentary, Presented by Acura was presented by Mark Duplass to:Knock Down the House/ U.S.A. (Director: Rachel Lears, Producers: Sarah Olson, Robin Blotnick, Rachel Lears) — A young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. One of their races will become the most shocking political upset in recent American history.Cast: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
TheAudience Award: U.S. Dramatic, Presented by Acura was presented by Paul Downs Colaizzo to:Brittany Runs A Marathon/ U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Paul Downs Colaizzo, Producers: Matthew Plouffe, Tobey Maguire, Margot Hand)—A woman living in New York takes control of her life – one city block at a time.Cast:Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lil Rel Howery, Micah Stock, Alice Lee.
TheAudience Award: World Cinema Documentarywas presented by Ray Romano to:Sea of Shadows/ Austria (Director: Richard Ladkani, Producers: Walter Koehler, Wolfgang Knoepfler) —The vaquita, the world’s smallest whale, is near extinction as its habitat is destroyed by Mexican cartels and Chinese mafia, who harvest the swim bladder of the totoaba fish, the “cocaine of the sea.” Environmental activists, Mexican navy and undercover investigators are fighting back against this illegal multimillion-dollar business.
TheAudience Award: World Cinema Dramaticwas presented by Mark Duplass to:Queen of Hearts/ Denmark (Director: May el-Toukhy, Screenwriters: Maren Louise Käehne, May el-Toukhy, Producers: Caroline Blanco, René Ezra) — A woman jeopardizes both her career and her family when she seduces her teenage stepson and is forced to make an irreversible decision with fatal consequences.Cast: Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, Magnus Krepper.
TheAudience Award: NEXT, Presented by Adobe was presented by Danielle Macdonald to:The Infiltrators/ U.S.A. (Directors: Alex Rivera, Cristina Ibarra, Screenwriters: Alex Rivera, Aldo Velasco, Producers: Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera, Darren Dean) — A rag-tag group of undocumented youth – Dreamers – deliberately get detained by Border Patrol in order to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center.Cast: Maynor Alvarado, Manuel Uriza, Chelsea Rendon, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Vik Sahay.
TheDirecting Award: U.S. Documentarywas presented by Yance Ford to: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, forAmerican Factory/ U.S.A. (Directors: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Producers: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello) — In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
TheDirecting Award: U.S. Dramaticwas presented by Desiree Akhavan to: Joe Talbot, forThe Last Black Man in San Francisco/ U.S.A. (Director: Joe Talbot, Screenwriters: Joe Talbot, Rob Richert, Producers: Khaliah Neal, Joe Talbot, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh) — Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.
TheDirecting Award: World Cinema Documentarywas presented by Maite Alberdi to: Mads Brügger, forCold Case Hammarskjöld/ Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium (Director: Mads Brügger, Producers: Peter Engel, Andreas Rocksén, Bjarte M. Tveit) — Danish director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Bjorkdahl are trying to solve the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjold. As their investigation closes in, they discover a crime far worse than killing the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
TheDirecting Award: World Cinema Dramaticwas presented by Ciro Guerra to: Lucía Garibaldi, forThe Sharks/ Uruguay, Argentina, Spain (Director and screenwriter: Lucía Garibaldi, Producers: Pancho Magnou Arnábal, Isabel García) — While a rumor about the presence of sharks in a small beach town distracts residents, 15-year-old Rosina begins to feel an instinct to shorten the distance between her body and Joselo’s.Cast: Romina Bentancur, Federico Morosini, Fabián Arenillas, Valeria Lois, Antonella Aquistapache.
TheWaldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramaticwas presented by Phyllis Nagy to: Pippa Bianco, forShare/ U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Pippa Bianco, Producers: Carly Hugo, Tyler Byrne, Matt Parker) — After discovering a disturbing video from a night she doesn’t remember, sixteen-year-old Mandy must try to figure out what happened and how to navigate the escalating fallout.Cast: Rhianne Barreto, Charlie Plummer, Poorna Jagannathan, J.C. MacKenzie, Nick Galitzine, Lovie Simone.
AU.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Moral Urgencywas presented by Alissa Wilkinson to: Jacqueline Olive, forAlways in Season/ U.S.A. (Director: Jacqueline Olive, Producers: Jacqueline Olive, Jessica Devaney) — When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother’s search for justice and reconciliation begins as the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.
AU.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Emerging Filmmakerwas presented by Jeff Orlowski to: Liza Mandelup, forJawline/ U.S.A. (Director: Liza Mandelup, Producers: Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Hannah Reyer) — The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl lust, as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee.
AU.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editingwas presented by Alissa Wilkinson to: Todd Douglas Miller, forAPOLLO 11/ U.S.A. (Director: Todd Douglas Miller, Producers: Todd Douglas Miller, Thomas Petersen, Evan Krauss) — A purely archival reconstruction of humanity’s first trip to another world, featuring never-before-seen 70mm footage and never-before-heard audio from the mission.
AU.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematographywas presented by Jeff Orlowski to: Luke Lorentzen,Midnight Family/ Mexico, U.S.A. (Director: Luke Lorentzen, Producers: Kellen Quinn, Daniela Alatorre, Elena Fortes, Luke Lorentzen) — In Mexico City’s wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a private ambulance, competing with other for-profit EMTs for patients in need of urgent help. As they try to make a living in this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.
AU.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Vision and Craftwas presented by Tessa Thompson to: Alma Har’el for her filmHoney Boy/ U.S.A. (Director: Alma Har’el, Screenwriter: Shia LaBeouf, Producers: Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Anita Gou, Christopher Leggett, Alma Har’el) — A child TV star and his ex-rodeo clown father face their stormy past through time and cinema.Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe.
AU.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Collaborationwas presented by Dennis Lim to: Director Joe Talbot for his filmThe Last Black Man in San Francisco/ U.S.A. (Director: Joe Talbot, Screenwriters: Joe Talbot, Rob Richert, Producers: Khaliah Neal, Joe Talbot, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christina Oh) — Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.Cast: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Rob Morgan, Tichina Arnold, Danny Glover.
AU.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Actingwas presented by Tessa Thompson to: Rhianne Barreto, forShare/ U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Pippa Bianco, Producers: Carly Hugo, Tyler Byrne, Matt Parker) — After discovering a disturbing video from a night she doesn’t remember, sixteen-year-old Mandy must try to figure out what happened and how to navigate the escalating fallout.Cast: Rhianne Barreto, Charlie Plummer, Poorna Jagannathan, J.C. MacKenzie, Nick Galitzine, Lovie Simone.
AWorld Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for No Borderswas presented by Maite Alberdi to: Hassan Fazzili, forMidnight Traveler/ U.S.A., Qatar, United Kingdom, Canada (Director: Hassan Fazili, Screenwriter: Emelie Mahdavian, Producers: Emelie Mahdavian, Su Kim) — When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee with his wife and two young daughters. Capturing their uncertain journey, Fazili shows firsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared between a family on the run.
AWorld Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Changewas presented by Nico Marzano to: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, forHoneyland/ Macedonia (Directors: Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska, Producer: Atanas Georgiev) — When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
AWorld Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematographywas presented by Nico Marzano to: Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, forHoneyland/ Macedonia (Directors: Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska, Producer: Atanas Georgiev) — When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
AWorld Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originalitywas presented by Ciro Guerra to: Makoto Nagahisa, forWE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES/ Japan (Director and screenwriter: Makoto Nagahisa, Producers: Taihei Yamanishi, Shinichi Takahashi, Haruki Yokoyama, Haruhiko Hasegawa) — Their parents are dead. They should be sad, but they can’t cry. So they form a kick-ass band. This is the story of four 13-year-olds in search of their emotions.Cast: Keita Ninomiya, Satoshi Mizuno, Mondo Okumura, Sena Nakajima.
AWorld Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Awardwas presented by Charles Gillbert to: Alejandro Landes, forMonos/ Colombia, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Uruguay (Director: Alejandro Landes, Screenwriters: Alejandro Landes, Alexis Dos Santos, Producers: Alejandro Landes, Fernando Epstein, Santiago Zapata, Cristina Landes) — On a faraway mountaintop, eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow.Cast: Julianne Nicholson, Moisés Arias, Sofia Buenaventura, Deiby Rueda, Karen Quintero, Laura Castrillón.
AWorld Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Actingwas presented by Charles Gillbert to: Krystyna Janda, forDolce Fine Giornata/ Poland (Director: Jacek Borcuch, Screenwriters: Jacek Borcuch, Szczepan Twardoch, Producer: Marta Habior) — In Tuscany, Maria’s stable family life begins to erode as her relationship with a young immigrant develops against a backdrop of terrorism and eroding democracy.
TheNEXT Innovator Prizewas presented by juror Laurie Anderson to: Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra, forThe Infiltrators/ U.S.A. (Directors: Alex Rivera, Cristina Ibarra, Screenwriters: Alex Rivera, Aldo Velasco, Producers: Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera, Darren Dean) — A rag-tag group of undocumented youth – Dreamers – deliberately get detained by Border Patrol to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center.Cast: Maynor Alvarado, Manuel Uriza, Chelsea Rendon, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Vik Sahay.
