All That Breathes, award shows, Cha Cha Real Smooth, documentaries, drama, film festivals, Girl Picture, movies, Nanny, Navalny, Sundance Film Festival, The Exiles, The Territory, Utama
January 28, 2022
by Carla Hay
The winners of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival were announced in its annual award ceremony, held this year as a virtual event on January 28 in Park City, Utah. The annual festival, which is presented by the Sundance Institute, runs from January 20 to January 30 this year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire festival was virtual.
“Nanny,” directed by Nikyatu Jusu, won the top prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition’s Grand Jury category. The horror film is about a Senegalese immigrant, who works as a nanny in New York City and has nightmarish visions while she is anxious to reunite with her 6-year-old son. The movie’s cast includes Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Leslie Uggams, Morgan Spector and Rose Decker.
The comedy/drama “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” directed by Cooper Raiff, won the prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition’s Audience Award. All the Audience Awards are voted for by Sundance Film Festival attendees. Apple Studios/Apple TV+ purchased “Cha Cha Real Smooth” for a reported $15 million, which was the highest acquisition amount for a Sundance movie this year. Raiff stars in the movie, which is about a recent college graduate who falls in love with a divorced mother of an autistic teenage daughter.
In the World Dramatic Feature categories, director Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s drama “Utama” won the Grand Jury Award. The movie is about an elderly Quechua couple in Bolivia whose lives are threatened by a long drought. The World Dramatic Feature Audience Award went to director Alli Haapasalo’s “Girl Picture,” a coming-of-age drama about three Finnish teenage girls.
The U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner was “The Exiles” (directed by Ben Klein and Violet Columbus), which chronicles documentarian Christine Choy’s quest to find three exiled dissidents from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The U.S. Documentary Audience Award went to “Navalny,” director Daniel Roher’s film about anti-authoritarian Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The World Documentary Grand Jury Award went to director Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes,” which tells the story of two brothers who team up to save a bird called the Black Kite. The World Documentary Audience Award was given to director Alex Pritz’s “The Territory,” which is about two men who fight against a takeover of protected land in the Brazilian forest.
Here is the complete list of winners:
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “Nanny”
Audience Award: “Cha Cha Real Smooth”
Directing: Jamie Dack, “Palm Trees and Power Lines”
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: K.D. Dávila, “Emergency”
Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast: “892”
Special Jury Award for Uncompromising Artistic Visions: Bradley Rust, “Blood”
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “The Exiles”
Audience Award: “Navalny”
Directing: Reid Davenport, “I Didn’t See You There”
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: Jocelyne Chaput, “Fire of Love”
Special Jury Award for Impact for Change: Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee, “Aftershock”
Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Margaret Brown, “Descendant”
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “Utama”
Audience Award: “Girl Picture”
Directing: Maryna Er Gorbach, “KLONDIKE”
Special Jury Award for Innovative Spirit: Martika Ramirez Escobar, “Leonor Will Never Die”
Special Jury Award for Acting: Teresa Sánchez, “Dos Estaciones”
Special Jury Award for Innovative Spirit: Martika Ramirez Escobar, “Leonor Will Never Die”
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: “All That Breathes”
Audience Award: “The Territory”
Directing Award: Simon Lereng Wilmont, “A House Made of Splinters”
Special Jury Award for Excellence in Verité Filmmaking: “Midwives”
SHORT FILMS
Grand Jury Prize: “The Headhunter’s Daughter”
U.S. Fiction Jury Award: “If I Go Will They Miss Me”
International Fiction Jury Award: “Warsha”
Nonfiction Jury Award: “Displaced”
Animation Jury Award: “Night Bus”
Special Jury Award for Ensemble: “A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here”
Special Jury Award for Screenwriting: “Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver”
OTHER AWARDS
NEXT Audience Award: “After Agnes”
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: “After Yang”
Sundance Institute NHK Award: Hasan Hadi, “The President’s Cake”
Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction: Amanda Marshall, “God’s Country”
Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction: Su Kim, “Free Chol Soo Lee”
Sundance Institute/Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction: Toby Shimin
Sundance Institute/Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction: Dody Dorn