Sundance Film Festival 2020 Awards Winners: MINARI, BOYS STATE, NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, & More

Sundance Film Festival Awards 2020 Winners

Minari, Boys State, Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020), and the other award winners of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival have been announced. The 36^th annual iteration of the Sundance Film Festival concluded its run on Sunday, February 2, 2020, with the winners announced the day before. The festival, which has become a staple in both the American and worldwide indie film scene, gave out 28 prizes for feature filmmaking and 7 for short works.

Some stats, as per the Festival’s press release:

The awards ceremony marked the culmination of the 2020 Festival, where 128 feature-length and 74 short films — selected from more than 15,100 submissions — were showcased in Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance, Utah, alongside work in the Indie Episodic category, panels, music and New Frontier.

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Of the 28 prizes awarded tonight to 25 films – comprising the work of 29 filmmakers – 12 (48%) were directed by one or more women; 10 (40%) were directed by one or more people of color; and 2 (8%) were directed by a person who identifies as LGBTQ+.

All of the awards went to the films’ listed directors, unless otherwise specified. Also, all of the listed films were U.S. productions, unless otherwise specified.

Sundance Film Festival Awards 2020 Winners

The full listing of the winners of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival Awards:

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Minari, directed by Lee Isaac Chung

Audience Award: Minari, directed by Lee Isaac Chung

Directing Award: The 40-Year-Old Version, directed by Radha Blank

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Nine Days, written and directed by Edson Oda

Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast: Charm City Kings, directed by Angel Manuel Soto

Special Jury Award – Auteur Filmmaking: Shirley, directed by Josephine Decker

Special Jury Award – Neo-Realism: Never Rarely Sometimes Always, directed by Eliza Hittman

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Boys State, directed by Amanda McBaine and Jess Moss

Audience Award: Crip Camp, directed by Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham

Directing Award: Time, directed by Garrett Bradley

Special Jury Award for Editing: Tyler H. Walk for Welcome to Chechnya, directed by David France

Special Jury Award for Innovation in Non-fiction Storytelling: Dick Johnson Is Dead, directed by Kirsten Johnson

Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker: Feels Good Man, directed by Arthur Jones

Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking: The Fight, directed by Eli Despres, Josh Kriegman, and Elyse Steinberg

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness (Iran, France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg), directed by Massoud Bakhshi

Audience Award: Identifying Features (Mexico, Spain), directed by Fernanda Valadez

Directing Award: Cuties (France), directed by Maïmouna Doucouré

Special Jury Award for Acting: Ben Whishaw for Surge (United Kingdom), directed by Aneil Karia

Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking: This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection (Lesotho, South Africa, Italy), directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Special Jury Prize for Best Screenplay: Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez for Identifying Features, directed by Fernanda Valadez

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Grand Jury Prize: Epicentro (Austria, France, U.S.A.), directed by Hubert Sauper)

Audience Award: The Reason I Jump (United Kingdom), directed by Jerry Rothwell

Directing Award: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Ukraine, Lithuania), directed by Iryna Tsilyk

Special Jury Award for Creative Storytelling: The Painter and the Thief (Norway), directed by Benjamin Ree

Special Jury Award for Cinematograhpy: Mircea Topoleanu and Radu Ciorniciuc for Acasa, My Home (Romania, Germany, Finland), directed by Radu Ciorniciuc

Special Jury Award for Editing: Mila Aung-Thwin, Ryan Mullins, and Sam Soko for Softie (Kenya), directed by Sam Soko

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Audience Award: I Carry You With Me (U.S.A., Mexico), directed by Heidi Ewing

Innovator Prize: I Carry You With Me (U.S.A., Mexico), directed by Heidi Ewing

SHORT FILM JURY AWARDS

Grand Jury Prize: So What If The Goats Die (France, Morocco), directed by Sofia Alaoui

Jury Award – U.S. Fiction: Ship: A Visual Poem, directed by Terrance Daye

Jury Award – International Fiction: The Devil’s Harmony (United Kingdom), directed by Dylan Holmes Williams

Jury Award – Nonfiction: John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, directed by Matthew Killip

Jury Award – Animation: Daughter (Czech Republic), directed by Daria Kashcheeva

Special Jury Award for Acting: Exam (Iran), directed by Sonia K. Hadad

Special Jury Award for Directing: Valerio’s Day Out (Colombia, U.S.A.), directed by Michael Arcos

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE AWARDS

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: Tesla, directed by Michael Almereyda

Amazon Studios Producers Award for Documentary Features: Diane Becker and Melanie Miller for Whirlybird, directed by Matt Yoka

Amazon Studios Producers Award for Narrative Features: Huriyyah Muhammad for Farewell Amor, directed by Ekwa Msangi

Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Documentary: Carla Guttierez

Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Narrative: Affonso Gonçalves

NHK Award: Higher (Singapore), directed by Kirsten Tan

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