CODA and Hive were the big winners at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival virtual awards ceremony on Tuesday night (February 2), taking home four and three prizes, respectively.
Siân Heder’s US feel-good family tale CODA – set up after producer Patrick Wachsberger took remake rights to French film La Famille Bélier with him when he left Lionsgate – won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, and Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic prizes.
The muscular awards haul rounded out a memorable festival for Heder and producers Wachsberger and Philippe Rousselet after Apple acquired worldwide rights in a Sundance record $25m deal.
Blerta Basholli’s drama Hive (Kosovo-Switzerland-Macedonia-Albania), about a Kosovan widow who inspires the women in her village to work to support their families after the men have been killed or gone missing in the Kosovo War, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic, and Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic prizes. LevelK handles international sales on the film, which is based on a true story.
Questlove’s Summer Of Soul won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award as well as the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary prize, while Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee took the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary prize. Neon and Participant will co-distribute the film in North America.
India’s Writing With Fire from Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh won the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary and the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change.
Dash Shaw’s animation hybrid Cryptozoo, rumoured to be on its way to the Berlinale, won the NEXT Innovator Prize presented by Adobe and will be released in North America by Magnolia Pictures. Match Factory handles international sales on the film.
“This was not a ‘virtual’ festival, it was a real festival and the power of these artists and their work was what made it so,” added Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson. “It has been a privilege to help this work meet new audiences and enter the culture with such fanfare, especially now, when breaking through the noise is harder than ever.”
The festival screened 73 feature-length and 50 short films selected from more than 14,000 submissions. They played on the festival’s online platform and in 28 satellite screen locations across the US. Award-winning films will screen for passholders on February 3.
GRAND JURY PRIZES
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised, USA), dir. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
CODA (USA), dir. Siân Heder
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Flee (Denmark-France-Sweden-Norway), dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Hive (Kosovo-Switzerland-Macedonia-Albania), dir. Blerta Basholli
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary presented by Acura
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised, USA), dir. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic presented by Acura
CODA (USA), dir. Siân Heder
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Hive (Kosovo-Switzerland-Macedonia-Albania), dir. Blerta Basholli
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
Writing With Fire (India), dirs. Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh
NEXT Audience Award presented by Adobe
Ma Belle, My Beauty (USA-France), dir. Marion Hill
SPECIAL JURY AWARDS
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
CODA (USA), dir. Siân Heder
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Actor
Clifton Collins Jr., Jockey (USA)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Emerging Filmmaker
Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt, Cusp (USA)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Nonfiction Experimentation
Theo Anthony, All Light, Everywhere (USA)
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Vérité Filmmaking
Camilla Nielsson, President (Denmark-USA-Norway)
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, Writing With Fire (India)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting
Jesmark Scicluna, Luzzu (Malta)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Creative Vision
One For The Road (China-Hong Kong-Thailand), dir. Baz Poonpiriya
NEXT Innovator Prize presented by Adobe
Cryptozoo (USA), dir. Dash Shaw
DIRECTING, SCREENWRITING & EDITING AWARDS
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary
Natalia Almada, Users (USA-Mexico)
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic
Siân Heder, CODA (USA)
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
Hogir Hirori, Sabaya (Sweden)
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Blerta Basholli, Hive (Kosovo-Switzerland-Macedonia-Albania)
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic
Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, On the Count of Three (USA)
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary
Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno, Homeroom (USA)
SHORT FILM AWARDS PRESENTED BY SOUTHWEST AIRLINES®
Short Film Grand Jury Prize
Lizard (UK), dir. Akinola Davies
Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction
The Touch Of The Master’s Hand (USA), dir. Gregory Barnes.
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
Bambirak (USA-Germany), dir. Zamarin Wahdat
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction
Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma (USA-Germany-France-Italy), dirs. Topaz Jones, rubberband
Short Film Jury Award: Animation
Souvenir Souvenir (France), dir. Bastien Dubois
Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting
Wiggle Room (USA), dirs. Sam Guest, Julia Baylis
Short Film Special Jury Award for Screenwriting
The Criminals (France-Romania-Turkey), dir. Serhat Karaaslan
The 2021 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, presented to an outstanding feature film about science or technology, was presented to Sons of Monarchs. The filmmakers received a $20,000 cash award from Sundance Institute with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED AWARDS
Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction
Nicole Salazar, Philly D.A.
Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction
Natalie Qasabian, Run
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction
Juli Vizza
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction
Terilyn Shropshire
Sundance Institute | NHK Award
Meryman Joobeur, Motherhood.
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