This year's Sundance Film Festival featured 84 feature films, 59 short films, and 26 jury-awarded prizes — with at least 7 of them distributed to Asian productions. Unsurprisingly, most of the Asian award winners revolved around tales of precarity. Shaunak Sen's Delhi-based ecology-conscious film “All That Breathes” won a Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary category. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing's on-the-ground documentary about Rohingya discrimination in the Rakhine State, “Midwives” won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence in Verite Filmmaking. Maryna Er Gorbach's Ukraine-Turkey co-production about a family living along the precarious Ukraine-Russian border, “KLONDIKE”, took home the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic.
Several dramatic films took their pickings, too. Philippines-based Martika Ramirez Escobar's love letter to cinema, “Leonor Will Never Die,” also was selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit. Shorts “Night Bus” (Joe Hsieh) and “Warsha” (Dania Bdeir) likewise swept the shorts fiction awards, winning in Animation and International Fiction respectively.
Diaspora cinema did remarkably well as well. The Japan-based “blood” walked away with the US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision. “After Yang” was presented with the 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and a $20,000 cash award. Su Kim snapped up the Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction for “Free Chol Soo Lee.”
But without further ado, the full list of awards:
2022 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS
- U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Nikyatu Jusu for Nanny
- U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Ben Klein and Violet Columbus for The Exiles
- World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Alejandro Loayza Grisi for Utama
- World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes
- Audience Award: U.S. Documentary: Navalny
- Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic: Cha Cha Real Smooth
- Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Girl Picture
- Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary: The Territory
- Audience Award: NEXT: Framing Agnes
- Festival Favorite Award: Navalny
- Directing Award: U.S. Documentary: Reid Davenport for I Didn't See You There
- Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic: Jamie Dack for Palm Trees and Power Lines
- World Cinema Documentary: Simon Lereng Wilmont for A House Made Of Splinters
- Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Maryna Er Gorbach for KLONDIKE
- Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic: K.D. Dávila for Emergency
- Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary: Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput for Fire Of Love
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision: Bradley Rust Gray for blood
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington, and Michael K Williams for 892
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change: Aftershock
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision: Descendant
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft: The Territory
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking: Midwives
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit: Leonor Will Never Die
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting: Teresa Sánchez for Dos Estaciones
- NEXT Innovator Award presented by Adobe: Framing Agnes
- Short Film Grand Jury Prize: The Headhunter's Daughter
- Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction: IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME
- Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction: Dania Bdeir for Warsha
- Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction: Samir Karahoda for Displaced
- Short Film Jury Award: Animation: Joe Hsieh for Night Bus
- Short Film Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro, and Lorre Motta for A wild patience has taken me here
- Short Film Special Jury Award: Screenwriting: Sara Driver for Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver
- Previously announced:
- 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: After Yang
- Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction: Su Kim for Free Chol Soo Lee
- Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction: Amanda Marshall God's Country
- Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction: Toby Shimin
- Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction: Dody Dorn
- Sundance Institute | NHK Award: Hasan Hadi for The President's Cake
