Nanny and The Exiles have won the Sundance 2022 US grand jury prizes and Utama and All That Breathes corresponding world cinema honours while Navalny was voted the audience favourite as the festival announced winners on Friday (Jan 28).
Nikyatu Jusu’s supernatural tale of an undocumented Senegalese nanny working in the US claimed the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and The Exiles from Ben Klein and Violet Columbus earned the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and follows documentarian Christine Choy and she reunites with exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s meditation on climate change in the Bolivian highlands Utama won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary went to Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes, about two brothers in Delhi who try to protect the black kite bird from the city’s pollution.
Daniel Roher’s mystery film Navalny, a profile of the Russian opposition politician, activist and poison attack survivor Alexei Navalny, won the Festival Favourite Award as well as Audience Award: U.S. Documentary honours.
Cooper Raiff’s coming-of-age story Cha Cha Real Smooth won the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic days after Apple acquired worldwide rights in a deal reportedly worth $15m. This marks the second year in a row Apple has pounced on the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic winner after it acquired last year’s runaway festival favourite Coda.
Alli Haapasalo’s Girl Picture from Finland took the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and Alex Pritz’s The Territory won the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary prize. National Geographic Documentary Films paid mid-seven figures for worldwide rights on opening weekend.
Sundance 2022 screened 84 features and 59 shorts selected from 14,849 submissions. A selection of the programme will play at seven Satellite Screen locations across the United States, starting tonight and the award-winning films will screen online on the festival platform over the weekend.
Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente said the programme proved that “no matter the context, independent storytelling remains a pivotal tool in expanding critical dialogues, and these stories will and must be shared”.
Festival director Tabitha Jackson added, “Whether you watched from home or one of our seven satellite screens, this year’s Festival expressed a powerful convergence; we were present, together, as a community connected through the work. And it is work that has already changed those who experienced it.”
“We are so grateful for this year’s jurors who brought their expertise and passion to their decision-making process,” said the festival’s director of programming Kim Yutani, “We congratulate the award winners and we’re so thankful to each and every film in the program that made the 2022 Sundance Film Festival such a huge success.”
Full list of Sundance 2022 winners
Grand jury awards
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny (USA)
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Ben Klein and Violet Columbus, The Exiles (USA)
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Alejandro Loayza Grisi, Utama (Bol-Uru-Fra)
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Shaunak Sen, All That Breathes (India-UK)
Audience Awards
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary presented by Acura – Navalny (USA) Daniel Roher
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic presented by Acura – Cha Cha Real Smooth, dir. Cooper Raiff
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic – Girl Picture (Fin), dir. Alli Haapasalo
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary – The Territory / (Bra-Den-USA), dir. Alex Pritz
Audience Award: NEXT presented by Adobe – Framing Agnes (Can-USA), dir. Chase Joynt
Festival Favorite Award
Navalny, selected by audience votes from the 84 features screened at the festival
Jury awards for directing, screenwriting and editing
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary – Reid Davenport, I Didn’t See You There (USA)
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic – Jamie Dack, Palm Trees And Power Lines (USA), dir/scr. Jamie Dack
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary – Simon Lereng Wilmont, A House Made Of Splinters (Den)
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic – Maryna Er Gorbach, Klondike / (Ukr-Trky)
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic – K.D. Dávila, Emergency (USA),dir. Carey Williams
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary – Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput, Fire Of Love (USA), dir. Sara Dosa
Special Jury Awards
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision – Bradley Rust Gray, blood (USA)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast – John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington, Michael K Williams, 892 (USA), dir/scr. Abi Damaris Corbin
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact For Change – Aftershock (USA), dirs. Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision – Descendant (USA), dir. Margaret Brown
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft – The Territory (Bra-Den-USA), dir. Alex Pritz
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking – Midwives (Mya), dir. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit – Leonor Will Never Die (Phil), dir/scr. Martika Ramirez Escobar
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting – Teresa Sánchez, Dos Estaciones (Mex), dir/scr. Juan Pablo González
Next Innovator Award
NEXT Innovator Award presented by Adobe – Chase Joynt, Framing Agnes / (Can-USA)
Short Film Awards
Presented By XRM Media
Short Film Grand Jury Prize – The Headhunter’s Daughter (Phil), dir/scr. Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction – Walter Thompson-Hernández, If I Go Will They Miss Me / (USA), dir/scr. Walter Thompson-Hernández
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction – Dania Bdeir, Warsha (Fra-Leb)
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction – Samir Karahoda, Displaced (Kos)
Short Film Jury Award: Animation – Joe Hsieh, Night Bus (Tai)
Short Film Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast – Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro, and Lorre Motta, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here (Bra), dir/scr. Érica Sarmet
Short Film Special Jury Award: Screenwriting – Sara Driver, Stranger Than Rotterdam With Sara Driver / (USA), dirs. Lewie Kloster, Noah Kloster
Previously announced Sundance awards
2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize – After Yang
Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award – Su Kim, Free Chol Soo Lee (U.S. Documentary Competition).
Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction – Amanda Marshall, God’s Country (Premieres)
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction – Toby Shimin
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction – Dody Dorn.
Sundance Institute | NHK Award Hasan Hadi – The President’s Cake.
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