Adapted from a short film that screened at last year's Sundance Film Festival (and later at the New York Film Festival), Damien Chazelle's Whiplash was the big winner as the 2014 Sundance fest presented its prizes tonight in Park City, UT. The story of a jazz drummer, starring Miles Teller, the film was an opening night selection at Sundance and quickly acquired for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics. It won the festival's Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition tonight.
Tracy Droz Tragos & Andrew Droz Palermo's Rich Hill won the U.S. Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize, while in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, Iain Forsyth's 20,000 Days on Earth — about musician Nick Cave — won a pair of prizes. It was honored with the Directing Prize as well as the editing award for Jonathan Amos.
In the international competition, Alejandro Fernández Almendras's To Kill A Man won the Dramatic Grand Jury award, while Talal Derki's Return to Homs won the documentary Grand Jury Prize.
The complete list of winners follows:
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Grand Jury Prize: Whiplash, directed by Damien Chazelle
Audience Award: Whiplash, directed by Damien Chazelle
Directing Award: Cutter Hodierne, Fishing Without Nets
Waldo Scott Screenwriting Award: Craig Johnson & Mark Heyman, The Skeleton Twins
Excellence in Cinematography Award: Christopher Blauvelt, Low Down
Special Jury Prize: The Octopus Project for music from Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
Special Jury Prize: Justin Simien for breakthrough talent, Dear White People
U.S. Documentary Competition
Grand Jury Prize: Rich Hill, directed by Tracy Droz Tragos & Andrew Droz Palermo
Audience Award: Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett
Directing Award: Ben Cotner & Ryan White, The Case Against 8
Editing Award: Jenny Golden & Karen Sim, Watchers of the Sky
Excellence in Cinematography Award: Rachel Bess Anderson & Ross Kaufman, E-Team
Special Jury Prize: The Overnighters, directed by Jesse Moss
Special Jury Prize: Watchers of the Sky, directed by Edet Belzberg
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Grand Jury Prize: To Kill a Man, directed by Alejandro Fernández Almendras
Audience Award: Difret, directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
Directing Award: 52 Tuesdays, directed by Sophie Hyde
Screenwriting Award: Blind, Eskil Vogt
Cinematography Award: Lilting, Ula Pontiklos
Special Jury Prize: God Help the Girl, directed by Stuart Murdoch
World Cinema Documentary Competition
Grand Jury Prize: Return to Homs, directed by Talal Derki
Audience Award: The Green Prince, directed by Nadav Schirman
Directing Award: 20, 000 Days on Earth, directed by Iain Forsyth
Editing Award: 20, 000 Days on Earth, Jonathan Amos
Cinematography Award: Happiness, Thomas Balmes and Nina Bernfeld
Special Jury Prize: We Come As Friends, directed by Hubert Sauper
Other Awards
The Best of NEXT Audience Award: Imperial Dreams, directed by Malik Vitthal
Alfred P. Sloan Prize: I Origins, directed by Mike Cahill
The Short Film Audience Award: Chapel Perilous, directed by Matthew Lessner