Here Are Your 2021 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners – Vulture

Emilia Jones in CODA.
Photo: Seacia Pavao

History was made at Tuesday night’s virtual Sundance Film Festival Awards ceremony. Siân Heder’s CODA, a family dramedy about the hearing child of deaf parents, became the first film in the festival’s history to win the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, and the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category. CODA also picked up a Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble. The film sold for a record $25 million to Apple Studios following a bidding war on Sunday. Blerta Basholli’s Hive similarly broke records in the World Cinema Dramatic category. Hive, which follows a single mother in the aftermath of the war in Kosovo, swept the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category, becoming the first film in that category to do so. Other winners from Tuesday include Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival directed by Questlove, which took home the Grand Jury and Audience Awards in the U.S. category, as well as Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated refugee documentary Flee, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema category. Check out the full list of winners below.

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
CODA

Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic 
CODA

Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic 
Siân Heder, CODA

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic 
Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, On the Count of Three

U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Actor
Clifton Collins Jr., Jockey

U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble
The cast of CODA (Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin)

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Audience Award: U.S. Documentary
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Directing Award: U.S. Documentary 
Natalia Almada, Users

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary
Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno, Homeroom

U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker 
Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt, Cusp

U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Nonfiction Experimentation 
Theo Anthony, All Light, Everywhere

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Hive

Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Hive

Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Blerta Basholli, Hive

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting 
Jesmark Scicluna, Luzzu

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
Baz Poonpiriya, One for the Road

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary 
Flee

Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary 
Writing With Fire

Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary 
Hogir Hirori, Sabaya

World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking
Camilla Nielsson, President

World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change
Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh, Writing With Fire

NEXT Audience Award
Marion Hill, My Belle, My Beauty

NEXT Innovator Award
Dash Shaw (director), Jane Samborski (animation director), Cryptozoo

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
Alexis Gambis, Son of Monarchs

Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Narrative Features
Natalie Qasabian, Run

Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Documentary Features
Nicole Salazar, Philly D.A.

Sundance Institute NHK Award
 Meryam Joobeur, Motherhood

Sundance Institute/Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction
Juli Vizza

Sundance Institute/Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction
Terilyn Shropshire

Leave a Reply