For a second year in a row, the winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance also took home the Grand Jury Prize for the U.S. Dramatic competition. The excellent Whiplash, starring Miles Teller as a jazz drummer bending under the tough-love tutelage of J.K. Simmons’ harsh instructor, followed in the footsteps of last year’s audience/jury favorite Fruitvale Station. Whether this says more about the sheer quality of these winning films or more about the increasingly populist bent of the jury selections is up for debate. Regardless, Whiplash kicked off the festival on a high note, shattering the recent trend of programmers selecting innocuous, forgettable fare for opening night. This year, Sundance’s first movie—and its first major acquisition, as it sold to Sony Pictures Classics for about $3 million—was also its most widely acclaimed.
Another film about music, Alive Inside: A Story Of Music & Memory, took home the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary, while jurors opted instead for Rich Hill, about kids growing up in a one-horse Missouri town. Meanwhile, the Nick Cave documentary 20,000 Days On Earth took home two prizes for editing and directing of a World Cinema Documentary, while the comedy Dear White People was handed a special jury award for Breakthrough New Talent. Some of the festival’s most talked-about titles, including Zach Braff’s sophomore feature Wish I Was Here and Richard Linklater’s ambitious Boyhood, screened out of competition and were thus ineligible for awards. Here’s the full list of Sundance feature film winners.
U. S. Grand Jury Prize — Dramatic: Whiplash
U. S. Grand Jury Prize — Documentary: Rich Hill
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize — Dramatic: To Kill A Man
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize — Documentary: Returns To Homs
Audience Award — U.S. Dramatic: Whiplash
Audience Award — U.S. Documentary: Alive Inside: A Story Of Music & Memory
Audience Award — World Cinema Dramatic: Difret
Audience Award — World Cinema Documentary: The Green Prince
Audience Award — Best of NEXT: Imperial Dreams
Directing Award — U.S. Dramatic: Fishing Without Nets, Cutter Hodierne
Directing Award — U.S. Documentary: The Case Against 8, Ben Cotner and Ryan White
Directing Award — World Cinema Dramatic: 52 Tuesdays, Sophie Hyde
Directing Award — World Cinema Documentary: 20,000 Days On Earth, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
Cinematography Award — U.S. Dramatic: Low Down, Christopher Blauvelt
Cinematography Award — U.S. Documentary: E-Team, Rachel Beth Anderson and Ross Kaufman
Cinematography Award — World Cinema Dramatic: Lilting, Ula Pontikos
Cinematography Award — World Cinema Documentary: Happiness, Thomas Balmès and Nina Bernfeld
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough New Talent: Dear White People, Justin Simien
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Musical Score: Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, composed by The Octopus Project
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Use of Animation: Watchers Of The Sky, directed by Edet Belzberg
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Intuitive Filmmaking: The Overnighters, directed by Jesse Moss
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance: God Help The Girl
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Bravery: We Come As Friends
Editing Award — U.S. Documentary: Watchers Of The Sky, Jenny Golden and Karen Sim
Editing Award — World Cinema Documentary: 20,000 Days On Earth, Jonathan Amos
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award — U.S. Dramatic: The Skeleton Twins, Craig Johnson and Mark Heyman
Screenwriting Award — World Cinema Dramatic: Blind, Eskil Vogt
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: I Origins