"Winter's Bone," a dreary backwoods noir about a grief-stricken teenager looking for her missing father, and "Restrepo," a brutal, action-packed documentary about young soldiers in Afghanistan, won the top prizes at the Sundance Film Festival's awards ceremony on Saturday night.
"Winter's Bone" won the Grand Jury prize for U.S. dramatic film. Director Debra Granik, who also accepted the screenwriting award earlier in the evening, unloaded a long list of collaborators before adding, "On this budget level, I really can't thank everybody."
"Restrepo," Sebastian Junger ("The Perfect Storm") and Tim Hetherington's visually dynamic portrait of a military bunker named after a fallen comrade, took home the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary.
Of the two big winners, only "Winter's Bone" has yet to secure theatrical distribution, through Roadside Attractions. "Restrepo," which screened at the festival on opening night, remains on the market.
"This country is at a very painful moment," Junger said in his acceptance speech. "We would like it if our movie could help this country go forward."
The ceremony was hosted by David Hyde Pierce, whose entrance began with a crowd-pleasing rap song that contained lyrics referencing most of the movies in the program. Festival director John Cooper joined Pierce onstage to throw in a few lyrics, all of which were written by Sundance programmer David Courier.
"Animal Kingdom," the Australian gangster film starring Guy Pearce that follows the decline of a family in the
Melbourne underworld, won the Sundance World Cinema dramatic jury prize. The naturalistic crime story from writer-director David Michod was clearly an audience favorite at Sundance, and also won positive critical reaction.
Meanwhile "The Red Chapel," Mads Brugger's jab at the brainwashers of North Korea, won the World Cinema jury prize for documentary.
Audience awards went to "happythankyoumoreplease" for U.S. dramatic film, and "Waiting for Superman" for U.S. documentary.
Editor's note: This version is corrected from an early version that did not specify that Grand Jury wins for "Animal Kingdom" and "The Red Chapel" were in the World Cinema category.
Here's the complete release from Sundance:
2010 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AWARDS
Animal Kingdom, The Red Chapel, Restrepo, and Winter's Bone Earn Grand Jury Prizes
Audience Favorites Feature Contracorriente, happythankyoumoreplease, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, andWasteland
Peers Give Homewrecker Best of NEXT Award
Park City, UT-The Jury, Audience, NEXT, and other special award-winners of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival's Awards Ceremony hosted by David Hyde Pierce (star of The Perfect Host which premiered in this year's Park City at Midnight section) in Park City, Utah. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Festival website, www.sundance.org/festival.
Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from four categories: U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition and World Cinema Documentary Competition. All films in competition were also eligible for Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards as selected by Festival audiences. The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Honda and World Cinema Audience Awards were announced by Louis C.K. Joseph Gordon Levitt announced the new Best of NEXT award, chosen by peers in the section and presented by YouTube™ in celebration of films made with little or no budget.
