WINNERS OF THE 2021 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

The end of the Sundance Film Festival,  this year a largely virtual event, always leads to awards and this fest hands out plenty of them. With thirty-one given out, it seems like everyone gets to go home with a prize.

"Coda", a family drama from writer/director, Siân Heder, received the Grand Jury Prize for the best U.S. dramatic feature. This story about a young woman, who is the only hearing person in her otherwise deaf family, is torn between staying with them as their fishing business is threatened or moving on with her life to attend music school, won Heder the Dramatic Directing Award and the film also won Best Dramatic Feature Audience Award. "Coda" was part of a bidding war with Apple+ being the winner with a $25 million bid.

Musician-turned-filmmaker, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson made a splash with his first feature, "Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)", which details the events at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which celebrated African American music and promoted Black pride, took the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Documentary.

And Blerta Basholli’s "Hive", about a woman in Kosovo who struggles to survive in a patriarchal society while in search of her missing husband, was the big winner in World Cinema with three awards, Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award and Best Director.

Here is a partial list of winners from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival:

U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): "Coda"
U.S. Dramatic Directing Award: Siân Heder, "Coda"
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (U.S. Dramatic): Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, "On The Count of Three"
U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Documentary): "Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)"
U.S. Directing Award (Documentary): Natalia Almada, "Users"
U.S. Editing Award (Documentary): Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno, "Homeroom"
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: "Hive"
World Cinema Directing Award: Blerta Basholli, "Hive"
World Cinema Jury Award for Acting: Jesmark Scicluna, "Luzzu"
World Cinema Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Baz Poonpiriya, "One For The Road"

U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Awards:

Best Ensemble Cast: "Coda"
Best Actor: Clifton Collins, Jr., "Jockey" 

Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker (Documentary): Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt, "Cusp"
Best Nonfiction Experimentation: "All Light, Everywhere"

U.S. Audience Awards:

Best Dramatic Feature: "Coda"
Best Documentary: "Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)"
Best World Cinema Dramatic Feature: "Hive"
Best World Cinema Documentary: "Writing With Fire"
World Cinema Jury Prize: "Flee"

World Cinema Directing Award: Hogir Hirori, "Sabaya"
World Cinema Special Jury Award in Impact for Change: "Writing With Fire"
World Cinema Special Jury Award in Verite Filmmaking: "President"

NEXT:

Audience Award: "Ma Belle, My Beauty"
Innovator Award: "Cryptozoo"