We Live in Public, Push, Rough Aunties and The Maid (La Nana) Earn Top Jury Prizes; Audience Favorites Feature Afghan Star, An Education, The Cove and Push
Park City, UT–The jury and audience award-winners of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by actor Jane Lynch in Park City, Utah. Films receiving jury awards were selected from the four categories: U.S. Dramatic and Documentary Competition and World Dramatic and Documentary Competition. Films in these categories were also eligible for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards. The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Honda were announced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The World Cinema Audience Awards were announced by Benjamin Bratt. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Sundance Channel, the Official Television Network of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, beginning Sunday, January 25, as well as on the official Festival website, www.sundance.org/festival.
Jury Prizes in Shorts Filmmaking were awarded to American and international short-form films on Tuesday, January 20. Other awards recognized at the ceremony included the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award, created to honor and support emerging filmmakers with their next screenplays, and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, awarded to a film which excels in addressing compelling topics in science or technology.
"This has been a truly remarkable year for Sundance in ways even we did not fully predict. We opened the Festival with animation and closed with science fiction, and in between showcased some of the best films we've ever seen," said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival. "People ask us how independent film has evolved over the past 25 years and the answer is, quite simply, it's better."
"We knew this would be an historic year, given our anniversary and the inauguration," said John Cooper, Director of Programming, Sundance Film Festival. "But I have to say that adding to the excitement and experience was the selection of truly high quality films in this year's competition. We were blown away and so were audiences."
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival Juries consisted of:
U.S. Dramatic Competition:, Virginia Madsen, Scott McGehee, Maud Nadler, Mike White and Boaz Yakin; U.S. Documentary Competition: Patrick Creadon, Carl Deal, Andrea Meditch, Sam Pollard and Marina Zenovich; World Dramatic Competition: Colin Brown (U.S.), Christine Jeffs (New Zealand) and Vibeke Windeløv (Denmark); World Documentary Competition: Gillian Armstrong (Australia), Thom Powers (U.S.); Hubert Sauper (France); Shorts Competition: Gerardo Naranjo, Lou Taylor Pucci and Sharon Swart; The Alfred P. Sloan Prize: Fran Bagenal, Rodney Brooks, Raymond Gesteland, Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Alex Rivera.
For the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected including 91 world premieres, 16 North American premieres, and 5 U.S. premieres representing 21 countries with 42 first-time filmmakers, including 28 in competition. These films were selected from 3,661 feature- length film submissions composed of 1,905 U.S. and 1,756 international feature-length films.
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