The Sundance Movie Pageant introduced its 2025 awards throughout a ceremony in Park Metropolis, Utah, on Friday. “Atropia,” directed by Hailey Gates, gained the U.S. dramatic competitors’s grand jury prize for its darkly comedic tackle the intersection of struggle and efficiency, whereas Brittany Shyne’s “Seeds,” an intimate exploration of Black generational farmers within the South, was awarded the U.S. documentary competitors’s high honor.
A biting satire set inside a navy role-playing facility, “Atropia,” which stars Alia Shankar, Callum Turner and Chloë Sevigny, follows an aspiring actor who falls in love with a soldier forged as an rebel, forcing them each to reckon with the blurred strains between efficiency and actuality. The jury praised Gates’ characteristic debut as “both hilarious and damning in its portrayal of the theater of war.” “Seeds” was acknowledged for its poetic and deeply private portrait of Black farmers preventing to protect their land and heritage.
On this planet cinema classes, the dramatic grand jury prize was awarded to “Sabar Bonda” (Cactus Pears), a co-production from India, the U.Okay. and Canada directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade. The movie tells the story of a metropolis dweller returning to his rural hometown for a mourning interval and forming an sudden bond with a neighborhood farmer. The documentary grand jury prize went to “Cutting Through Rocks,” directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Reza Eyni, which follows a groundbreaking councilwoman in a rural Iranian village as she fights towards patriarchal traditions.
The NEXT Innovator Award, given to a movie within the pageant’s part that highlights daring and unconventional storytelling, was awarded to Charlie Shackleton’s “Zodiac Killer Project,” a meditation on the true-crime style advised by way of 16mm footage of areas the filmmaker needed to abandon after his possibility rights for a novel have been declined.
“Twinless,” a dramedy about two males who meet in a twin bereavement assist group, gained the U.S. dramatic viewers award, whereas “André Is an Idiot,” a darkly comedian documentary a couple of man confronting his personal mortality, was honored within the U.S. documentary class.
On this planet cinema competitors, “DJ Ahmet,” a couple of North Macedonian teenager navigating household expectations and his love for music, took the viewers award for drama, whereas “Prime Minister,” a behind-the-scenes portrait of former New Zealand chief Jacinda Ardern, gained for documentary.
The NEXT viewers award went to “East of Wall,” a neo-Western a couple of rebellious horse coach and a bunch of wayward youngsters.
Amongst different jury awards, the directing prize within the U.S. dramatic competitors went to Rashad Frett for “Ricky,” a couple of man battling the challenges of life after incarceration, whereas the U.S. documentary directing award was introduced to Geeta Gandbhir for “The Perfect Neighbor,” an examination of Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” legal guidelines. The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Eva Victor for “Sorry, Baby,” a darkish comedy a couple of younger girl processing trauma.
Farmer Willie Head Jr. within the documentary “Seeds.”
(Brittany Shyne)
Dylan O’Brien obtained a particular jury award for appearing in “Twinless,” whereas “Plainclothes,” a drama about an undercover officer assigned to entrap homosexual males within the Nineteen Nineties, was honored for ensemble forged. Within the documentary class, “Selena y Los Dinos,” a portrait of the late Tejano famous person Selena Quintanilla, was awarded a particular jury prize for archival storytelling, and “Life After” gained a particular jury award for its thought-provoking investigation of a historic right-to-die case.
Whereas this yr’s pageant was comparatively quiet on the dealmaking entrance, the honorees hope to observe the trajectory of different current Sundance prize winners that went on to Oscar glory, together with “CODA,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Summer of Soul” and “Minari.”
The forty first version of the pageant concludes on Sunday.