The Sundance Film Festival unveiled the winners of its 2022 edition on Friday. Like the rest of this year’s festival, which was forced to go entirely virtual due to Omicron’s recent push, the awards ceremony will unfolded on Twitter, with honors spread across the diverse lineup unlike last year, when CODA won top honors.
Nikyatu Jusu Nanny won the American Drama Competition Grand Jury Prize, while the American Documentary Grand Jury Prize went to The exiled directed by Ben Klein and Violet Columbus. The Marquee Audience Awards went to Apple’s big sales recovery Cha Cha real smoothand the surprise documentary in secret screening Navalny, which won both the Audience Award in the US Doc section as well as the Festival Favorite Award omnibus.
Winners were announced in the US Dramatic, US Documentary, World Dramatic and World Documentary competitions as well as in the Next and Short Film sidebars. Audience Prize, Grand Jury and Special Jury Prizes were awarded. See the full list of winners below.
Best American Winner Nanny, a horror thriller, centers on Aisha (Anna Diop), an immigrant building a new life in New York while caring for the child of an Upper East Side family. She is forced to confront a hidden truth that threatens to shatter her fragile American dream. Michelle Monaghan and Sinqua Walls are also playing.
“For this Grand Jury Prize, we celebrate a film that inundated us with its compassionate and horrifying portrayal of a mother separated from her child,” Sundance juror Chelsea Bernard said during the virtual ceremony. “This film cannot be contained in one genre – it is visually stunning, masterfully acted, impeccably crafted from sound to visual effects, and the overall vision, expertly guided by Nikyatu Jusu, combines to provide its audience with a electrifying.”
The exiled revolves around activist and documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, who filmed the leaders of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square during the 1989 massacre. Halfway through production, the project was scrapped and the footage was all but forgotten. In Exilesit looks back at unpublished archives and the stories of three key figures in the protests, who remain political exiles to this day.
Navalny, meanwhile, is a documentary thriller directed by Daniel Roher hailing from CNN Films and HBO Max. This focuses on Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who gave Roher unprecedented access to himself and those around him as he recovered from poisoning and decided to return home.
Other notable winners tonight include a World Theater Competition Grand Jury Prize for Alejandro Loayza Grisi utama from Bolivia, one of Deadline’s Todd McCarthy festival raves (read his review here). Finland girl picture won the audience award in this section.
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the US Dramatic section went to KD Dávila for his comedy thriller Emergency, while Jamie Dack won the director’s award in this section for Palm trees and power lines.
Last year’s awards confirmed the good faith of CODA, which starred in the US Dramatic Competition and was scooped up by Apple in a record-breaking $25 million deal. This photo, directed by Siân Heder, also won the festival’s awards night, winning four trophies in all, including the audience award, the director’s award, the grand jury award and a special prize from the jury for the whole. It’s now an Oscar favorite.
This year’s real-life drama 892 won the American Ensemble Award in Composition from a cast led by John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington and the late Michael K Williams.
Overall, this year’s class was harder to gauge, with acquisition activity somewhat muted and in-person reactions to Park City screenings not a factor. Yet Deadline broke big deals led again by Apple, which paid $15 million for worldwide rights to Raiff’s Cha Cha real smooth.
In other market-leading deals, Searchlight Pictures has secured an approximately $7.5 million deal for the U.S. rights to Good luck to you, Leo Grandestarring Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack, while Sony Pictures Classics paid around $5 million for the North American and international rights to the Bill Nighy star Life.
On the documentary side, National Geographic took over fire of love in a seven-figure global rights deal, then followed by acquiring The territory. This latest photo won an Audience Award tonight in the World Documentary range as well as a Special Jury Prize for Documentary Craftsmanship given to director Alex Pritz.
Here is the full list of winners. Click on the title to read the Deadline review if available.
FESTIVAL FAVORITE AWARD
Navalny
Director: Daniel Roher
AMERICAN DRAMA COMPETITION
Audience Award
Cha Cha real smooth
Director-Screenwriter: Cooper Raiff
Grand Jury Prize
Nanny
Director-Screenwriter: Nikyatu Jusu
Direction
Jamie Dak
Palm trees and power lines
Waldo Salt Screenplay Award
KD Davila
Emergency
Special Jury Prize: Ensemble Cast
John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington and Michael K Williams
892
Special Jury Prize: Artistic Vision Without Compromise
Bradley Rust Gray
some blood
AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Audience Award
Navalny
Director: Daniel Roher
Grand Jury Prize
The exiled (WE)
Directors: Ben Klein, Violet Columbus
Direction
Reid Davenport
I didn’t see you there
Jonathan Oppenheim Publishing Award
Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput
fire of love
Special Jury Prize: Impact for Change
replica
Directors: Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee
Special Jury Prize: Creative Vision
Descending
Director: Margaret Brown
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Audience Award
The territory (Brazil/Denmark/USA)
Grand Jury Prize
anything that breathes (India/UK)
Director: Shaunak Sen
Direction
Simon Lereng Wilmont
A house made of shards (Denmark)
Special Jury Prize: Documentary Craftsmanship
The territory (Brazil/Denmark/USA)
Director: Alex Pritz
Special Jury Prize: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking
Midwives (Burma)
Director: Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing
WORLD DRAMA CINEMA COMPETITION
Audience Award
girl picture (Finland)
Director: Alli Haapasalo
Grand Jury Prize
Utama (Bolvia/Uruguay/France)
Director-Screenwriter: Alejandro Loayza Grisi
Direction
Maryna Er Gorbach
Klondike (Ukraine/Turkey)
Special Jury Prize: Innovative Spirit
Leonor will never die (Philippines)
Director-Screenwriter: Martika Ramirez Escobar
Special Jury Prize: Acting
Teresa Sanchez
Dos Estaciones (Mexico)
FOLLOWING
Audience Award
Framing Agnes (Canada/USA)
Director: Chase Joynt
SHORT FILM PRIZES
Grand Jury Prize
The Headhunter’s Daughter (Philippines)
Director-Screenwriter: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Jury Prize: US Fiction
If I leave will they miss me (WE)
Director-screenwriter: Walter Thompson-Hernández
Jury Prize: International Fiction
Warsha (France/Lebanon)
Director-screenwriter: Dania Bdeir
Jury Prize: Non-Fiction
Moved (Kosovo)
Director-screenwriter: Samir Karahoda
Jury Prize: Animation
Night bus (Taiwan)
Director-screenwriter: Joe Hsieh
Special Jury Prize: Ensemble Cast
Zelia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro and Lorre Motta
Wild patience brought me here (Brazil)
Director-screenwriter: Érica Sarmet
Special Jury Prize: Screenplay
Sarah Driver
Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver (WE)
Directors: Lewie Kloster, Noah Kloster; Screenwriter: Sara Driver
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED WINNERS
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Award
After Yang
Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producer Award for Non-Fiction
Su Kim, Free Chol Soo Lee (American Documentary Competition)
Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction
Amanda Marshall, God’s country (Firsts)
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Nonfiction Publishing
Toby Shimin
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Fiction Editing
Dody Dorn
Sundance Institute | NHK price
Hassan Hadi, The President’s Cake