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  1. Entertainment
  2. Film Festivals & Awards

Sundance Film Festival award winners

News
By Joshua Winning published 1 February 2010

Surprise wins for low buzz flicks...

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Crunched in between January’s Golden Globes and tomorrow’s announcement of the 2010 Oscar nominations, the Sundance Film Festival award winners have been revealed.

Hosted by David Hyde Pierce, Saturday evening saw the indie film festival handing out its coveted prizes.

Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone nabbed the Dramatic Competition honours (as well as the Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award). The film adapts Daniel Woodrell’s novel about a girl who looks after her impoverished family in the Ozark mountains. It’s set for a cinematic release over the summer.

Meanwhile, the US Documentary Competition prize went to Sebastien Junger and Tim Hetherington’s Restrepo , which followed a US platoon operating in Afghanistan for an entire year.

Close behind were Happythankyoumoreplease (below) and Waiting for Superman , both of which scooped the US Documentary Competition audience awards.

Other awards went to Mark Ruffalo for his debut Sympathy for Delicious (the Special Dramatic Jury Prize), Melbourne crime drama Animal Kingdom (World Cinema Jury Prize) and 3 Backyards (US Directing Award).

Here are the winners in full:

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Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Winter’s Bone , directed by Debra Granik

Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
Restrepo , directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Animal Kingdom , written and directed by David Michôd

World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary:
The Red Chapel ( Det Røde Kapel ), directed by Mads Brügger

Dramatic Audience Award:
happythankyoumoreplease , written and directed by Josh Radnor

Documentary Audience Award:
WAITING FOR SUPERMAN , directed by Davis Guggenheim

World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award:
Contracorriente ( Undertow ), written and directed by Javier Fuentes-Leõn

World Cinema Documentary Audience Award:
Wasteland, directed by Lucy Walker

The Best of NEXT:
Homewrecker , directed by Todd Barnes and Brad Barnes

Directing Award, Dramatic:
3 Backyards , directed and written by Eric Mendelsohn

Directing Award, Documentary:
Smash His Camera , directed by Leon Gast

World Cinema Directing Award, Dramatic:
Southern District directed and written by Juan Carlos Valdivia

World Cinema Directing Award, Documentary:
Space Tourists , directed by Christian Frei

Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award:
Winter’s Bone , written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini.

World Cinema Screenwriting Award:
Southern District , written and directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia

Documentary Editing Award:
Joan Rivers—A Piece Of Work , edited by Penelope Falk

World Cinema Documentary Editing Award:
A Film Unfinished , edited by Joëlle Alexis

Excellence in Cinematography Award, Dramatic:
Obselidia Cinematographer: Zak Mulligan

Excellence in Cinematography Award, Documentary:
The Oath Cinematographers: Kirsten Johnson and Laura Poitras

World Cinema Cinematography Award, Dramatic:
The Man Next Door ( El Hombre de al Lado ) Directors and cinematographers Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat

World Cinema Cinematography Award, Documentary:
His & Hers Cinematographers: Kate McCullough and Michael Lavelle

Special Jury Prize: Dramatic:
Sympathy for Delicious , directed by Mark Ruffalo

Special Jury Prize: Documentary:
GASLAND , directed by Josh Fox

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary
Enemies of the People , directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath

Surprised to see Ruffalo bag an award?

Joshua Winning
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Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.  

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