The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its Jury and Audience Award winners for 2023.
Jurors are announcing the winners of the fest live from The Ray Theater in Park City, Utah, and is live streaming to the festival's social media channels. the 2023 festival featured 111 features and 64 shorts, selected from over 15,856 submissions, and screened in Park City, Salt Lake City, and at the Sundance Resort. No Film School was live at the event over the past week. Not only did we watch many of these great films that were up for awards, but talked with the filmmakers behind these fantastic projects at one of the most prestigious indie film festivals in the world.
This is Sundance's first year back in person since the COVID-19 pandemic. While we were nervous about what acquisitions, festival turnout, and what Sundance means to the indie filmmaking world, this year's fest was marked by several large sales, including two sales of around $20 million for Fair Playand Flora and Son. It has been a great festival, and the movies reflected the filmmaking community's eagerness to come together again and celebrate art.
Check out the winners' list below, and let us know what you think of this year's Sundance 2023 in the comments below!
'Radical'Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Sundance 2023 Winners
FESTIVAL FAVORITE AWARD: Radical, Director: Christopher Zalla
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: A Thousand And One, Director A.V. Rockwell
Audience Award: The Persian Version, Director Maryam Keshavarz
Directing Award:Sing J. Lee, The Accidental Getaway Driver
Jury Award: Creative Vision: Magazine Dreams, Director Elijah Bynum
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Maryam Keshavarz, The Persian Version
Special Jury Award: Acting: Lio Mehiel, Mutt
Jury Award: Ensemble: Theater Camp, Directors Molly Gordon, and Nick Lieberman
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, Directors Joe Brewster, and Michèle Stephenson
Audience Award: Beyond Utopia, Director Madeleine Gavin
Directing Award:Luke Lorentzen, A Still Small Voice
Special Jury Award: Clarity of Vision: The Stroll, Directors Kristen Lovell, and Zackary Drucker
Special Jury Award: Freedom of Expression: Bad Press, Directors Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: Daniela I. Quiroz, Going Varsity in Mariachi
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Audience Award: 20 Days in Mariupol (Ukraine), Director Mstylav Chernov
Grand Jury Prize: The Eternal Memory (Chile), Director Maite Alberdi
Directing Award: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Estonia/France/Ireland), Director Anna Hints
Special Jury Award: Verite Filmmaking: Against the Tide (India), Director Sarvnik Kaur
Special Jury Award: Creative Vision: Fantastic Machine (Sweden/Denmark), Director Axel Danielson
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Audience Award: Shayda (Australia), Director Noora Niasari
Grand Jury Prize: Scrapper (UK), Director Charlotte Regan
Directing Award: Marija Kavtaradze, Slow (Lithuania/Spain/Sweden)
Special Jury Award: Creative Vision: Animalia (France/Morocco/Qatar), Director Sofia Alaoui
Special Jury Award: Best Performance: Rosa Marchant, When It Melts (Belgium/Netherlands)
Special Jury Award: Cinematography: Lílis Soares, Mami Wata (Nigeria)
NEXT
Audience Award: Kokomo City, Director D. Smith
Innovator Award: Kokomo City, Director D. Smith
SHORT FILMS AWARDS
Grand Jury Prize: When You Left Me On That Boulevard (U.S.A.), Director Kayla Abuda Galang
Jury Award: US Fiction: Rest Stop, Director Crystal Kayiza
Jury Award: Directing, International: Valeria Hofmann, AliEN0089 (Chile)
Jury Award: Directing, US: Jarreau Carrillo, The Vacation
Jury Award: Animation: The Flying Sailor, Directors Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (Canada)
Jury Award: Nonfiction: Will You Look At Me (China), Director Shuli Huang
Jury Award: International Fiction: The Kidnapping of the Bride (Germany), Director Sophia Mocorrea
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED WINNERS
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: The Pod Generation, Director Sophie Barthes
Amazon Studios Nonfiction Award: Jess Devaney, It’s Only Life After All
Amazon Studios Fiction Award: Kara Durrett, The Starling Girl
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction: Mary Manhardt
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction: Troy Takaki
Sundance/NHK Award: Olive Nwosu, Lady
Sundance Institute | Stars Collective Imagination Awards:
Tamara Shogaolu, 40 Acres
Navid Khonsari, Vassiliki Khonsari, and Andres Perez-Duarte, Block Party Bodega
Vanessa Keith, Year 2180
Gayle Stevens Volunteer Award: Carlos Sanchez
No Film School's coverage of Sundance 2023 is brought to you by Adobe.
