Movies

Check Out the Winners from Sundance 2019

Find out which films took home the top honors at this year's film festival.

By Michaela Wagner February 4, 2019

Alfre Woodard and Alex Castillo appear in Clemency by Chinonye Chukwu. The film won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance festival. 

After a jam-packed 10 days, Sundance 2019 wrapped this weekend with an awards ceremony to honor the films that really stood out from the festival's 121 features and 73 shorts--all of which were selected from 14,259 submissions. The coveted Grand Jury Prize for the U.S. Dramatic competition went to Chinonye Chukwu for her film Clemency, about a prison warden who grapples with the psychological and emotional demons of her job carrying out death row executions. One Child Nation by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, which uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children it shaped, took the equally prestigious Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary competition.  

On the international scene, the big winner was the Macedonian entry Honeyland by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, which claimed not only the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary, but also took home special jury awards for cinematography and impact for change. Joanna Hogg claimed the World Cinema Dramatic section's top prize for her film The Souvenir. 

“Supporting artists and their stories has been at the core of Sundance Institute’s mission from the very beginning,” said Sundance Institute President and Founder Robert Redford. "At this critical moment, it’s more necessary than ever to support independent voices, to watch and listen to the stories they tell.”

"This year’s expansive festival celebrated and championed risk-taking artists," said Keri Putnam, the Institute's Executive Director. "As the Festival comes to a close, we look forward to watching the stories and conversations that started here as they shape and define our culture in the year to come."

Check out all the winning films below. 

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize: Clemency

Audience Award: Brittany Runs a Marathon

Directing: Joe Talbot, for The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Pippa Bianco, for Share

Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft: Alma Har’el for her film Honey Boy

Special Jury Award for Creative Collaboration: Director Joe Talbot for The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting: Rhianne Barreto, for Share

U.S. Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize: One Child Nation

Directing: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, for American Factory

Audience Award: Knock Down the House

Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency: Jacqueline Olive, for Always in Season

Special Jury Award: Emerging Filmmaker: Liza Mandelup, for Jawline

Special Jury Award for Editing: Todd Douglas Miller, for APOLLO 11

Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Luke Lorentzen, Midnight Family

World Cinema Dramatic Competition 

Grand Jury Prize: The Souvenir 

Audience Award: Queen of Hearts

Directing Award: Lucía Garibaldi, for The Sharks

Special Jury Award: Alejandro Landes, for Monos

Special Jury Award for Acting: Krystyna Janda, for Dolce Fine Giornata

World Cinema Documentary Competition 

Grand Jury Prize: Honeyland

Audience Award: Sea of Shadows

Directing Award: Mads Brügger, for Cold Case Hammarskjöld

Special Jury Award for No Borders: Hassan Fazzili, for Midnight Traveler

Special Jury Award for Impact for Change: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, for Honeyland

Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, for Honeyland

Special Jury Award for Originality: Makoto Nagahisa, for WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES

Other Awards

NEXT Audience Award: The Infiltrators  

NEXT Innovator Award: Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra, for The Infiltrators

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Sundance Institute NHK Award: Planet Korsakov

Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Awards: Carly Hugo and Matt Parker (Feature Film) Lori Cheatle (Documentary Film)

Short Film Awards

Short Film Grand Jury Prize: Aziza

Jury Award: U.S. Fiction: Green

Jury Award: International Fiction: Dunya's Day

Jury Award: Nonfiction: Ghosts of Sugar Land 

Jury Award: Animation: Reneepoptosis 

Special Jury Awards for DirectingFAST HORSE to director and screenwriter Alexandra Lazarowich & The MINORS to director and screenwriter Robert Machoian

 

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