Sundance Winners

Remember "alternative rock"? Remember goatees, new media and GenX? Even though the mere mention of Sundance conjures all these remnants of a bygone era, the festival has met with the opposite fate. It lives on, thriving, perhaps, as some argue, far too well for its own good. In the last few years, the most common complaints about America's most famous film festival run along the line that it's, well, way too famous, overrun with Hollywood stars, journalists, PR armies and studio-backed product posing as "indie". The frustration led to the founding of an alternative-to-the-alternative festival, Slamdance, and a couple of alternative-to-the-alternative-to-the-alternative festivals have sprung up since.

But for all the bitching, a quick scan of the films ultimately honored speak very well indeed for the integrity of the festival that, contrary to popular myth, Robert Redford did not actually found. The Utah/United States Film Festival was founded in 1978, took place in Salt Lake City, moved to Park City in 1981, and in 1985, Redford's Sundance Institute took over administration. Which is where our chronicle of the winners begins. As DVD versions of the most recent winners become available, we'll let you know right here.

2008 winners are on GC Daily for now and will be added here shortly!

Links to GreenCine if the titles are now available on DVD.

2007 (expanded list)

• Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Jason Kohn's Manda Bala (Send a Bullet). GCD entry.
• Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro. GCD.
• World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary: Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem's Vores Lykkes Fjender (Enemies of Happiness).
• World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic: Dror Shaul's Adama Meshugaat (Sweet Mud).
• Audience Award: Documentary: Irene Taylor Brodsky's Hear and Now.
• Audience Award: Dramatic: James C Strouse's Grace is Gone. GCD.
• World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary: David Sington's In the Shadow of the Moon. GCD.
• World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic: John Carney's Once. GCD.
• Directing Award: Documentary: Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine for War/Dance.
• Directing Award: Dramatic: Jeffrey Blitz for Rocket Science. GCD.
• Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary: Heloísa Passos for Manda Bala (Send a Bullet).
• Excellence in Cinematography Award: Dramatic: Benoît Debie for Joshua. GCD.
• Documentary Editing Award: Hibah Sherif Frisina, Charlton McMillan, Michael Schweitzer for Nanking. GCD.
• Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: James C Strouse for Grace is Gone.
• Documentary Jury: Special Jury Prize: Charles Furguson's No End in Sight. GCD.
• Special Jury Prizes for Acting:
  • Jess Weixler in Teeth. GCD.
  • Tamara Podemski in Four Sheets to the Wind.

• Special Jury Prize for Singularity of Vision: Chris Smith for The Pool.

• World Cinema Competition Jury: Special Jury Prize: Shimon Dotan's Hot House.
• World Cinema Dramatic Competition Jury: Special Jury Prize: Gela Babluani and Temur Babluani's L'Heritahe (The Legacy).
• Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking: Don Hertzfeldt's Everything Will Be OK. GCD.
• Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking: Radu Jude's The Tube With a Hat.

Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award:

• Lucia Cedron for Agnus Dei
• Caran Hartsfield for Bury Me Standing.
• Tomoko Kana for Two By The River.
• Dagur Kári for The Good Heart.

2006

Both the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and the Audience Award: Dramatic:
Quinceañera, directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.

Both the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and the Audience Award: Documentary:
God Grew Tired of Us, directed by Christopher Quinn.

World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary:
In the Pit, written and directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo.

World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic:
13 (Tzameti), written and directed by Géla Babluani.

World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary:
De Nadie, directed by Tin Dirdamal.

World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic: No. 2, written and directed by Toa Fraser.

Documentary Directing Award:
James Longley for Iraq in Fragments. Longley also picked up an Excellence in Cinematography Award, along with Tom Richmond for Right at Your Door, and an award for Documentary Film Editing, which he shares with Billy McMillan and Fiona Otway.

Dramatic Directing Award:
Dito Montiel for A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, which also picked up a Special Jury Prize for the Best Ensemble Performance.

Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award:
Hilary Brougher for Stephanie Daley.

Special Jury Prize: Documentary:
American Blackout, directed by Ian Inaba, and TV Junkie, directed by Michael Cain and Matt Radecki.

Special Jury Prize: Dramatic:
In Between Days, directed by So Yong Kim.

Special Jury Prizes: World Cinema Documentary:
Into Great Silence, directed by Philip Groening, and Dear Pyongyang, directed by Yonghi Yang.

Special Jury Prize: World Cinema Dramatic:
Eve & the Fire Horse, directed by Julia Kwan.

Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking:
Bugcrush, directed by Carter Smith, and The Wraith of Cobble Hill, directed by Adam Parrish King.

Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking:
The Natural Route, directed by Àlex Pastor Vallejo.

Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking:
Before Dawn, directed by Bálint Kenyeres, Preacher With an Unknown God, directed by Rob VanAlkemade, and Undressing My Mother, directed by Ken Wardrop.

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