Birth of a Nation wins Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize

Record-breaking movie The Birth of a Nation has been awarded top honours at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
Actor/director Nate Parker’s feature film directorial debut, which picked up the biggest deal ever at the annual independent film showcase when Fox Searchlight executives bought the rights for $17.5 million (GBP12.3 million) last week (26Jan16), picked up the U.S. Grand Jury Prize on Saturday (30Jan16).
The film, which received a standing ovation throughout the closing credits following the festival premiere, chronicles the story of former slave Nat Turner, who led a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virginia.
Other winning films at actor/director Robert Redford’s annual event in Park City have included political documentary Weiner, Morris From America and Swiss Army Man, in which Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe plays a corpse, while Sonita, director Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami’s stirring documentary about a young Afghan woman who is sold to an unknown husband by her parents, picked up three prizes. Sandstorm and Between Sea and Land were also multiple winners with Vicky Hernandez and Manolo Cruz, the stars of the latter, claiming the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting.
The full list of 2016 Sundance Film Festival winners is:
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic – Swiss Army Man
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic – Chad Hartigan (Morris from America)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award – Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (As You Are)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance – Joe Seo (Spa Night)
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance – Melanie Lynskey (The Intervention) and Craig Robinson (Morris from America)
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Weiner
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary – Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Penny Lane & Thom Stylinski (NUTS!)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking – Trapped
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Writing – Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine)
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Verrite Filmmaking – The Bad Kids
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize – Embrace of the Serpent
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Sand Storm
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic – Felix van Groeningen (Belgica)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting – Vicky Hernandez & Manolo Cruz (Between Sea and Land)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting – Ines Bortagaray & Ana Katz (Mi Amiga del Parque)
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Unique Vision & Design – The Lure
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Sonita
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary – All These Sleepless Nights
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Debut Feature – When Two Worlds Collide
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography – The Land of the Enlightened
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Mako Kamitsuna & John Maringouin (We Are X)
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic – The Birth of a Nation
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary – Jim: The James Foley Story
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic – Between Sea and Land
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary – Sonita
Audience Award: NEXT – First Girl I Loved
Short Film Grand Jury Prize – Thunder Road
Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction – The Procedure
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction – Maman(s)
Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction – Bacon & God’s Wrath
Short Film Jury Award: Animation – Edmond
Short Film Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance – Grace Glowicki (Her Friend Adam)
Short Film Special Jury Award for Best Direction – Ondrej Hudecek (Peacock)
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Weiner
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Sand Storm
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Sonita