‘Josephine’ Dominates Sundance — Wins Jury and Audience Prizes

A melancholic last few days await Park City, Utah as this year’s Sundance Film Festival says goodbye to its five-decade old location, and moves to Colorado next year. Gosh, I’m gong to miss that place — so many memories.

On Friday morning, Sundance announced its annual winners in a live ceremony at the Ray Theatre, with juries that included a number of filmmaker, including A.V. Rockwell, Janicza Bravo, and Azazel Jacobs, Jennie Livingston.

No surprise, the one big Sundance “sensation” to have swept Park City these last eight days dominated — Beth de Araújo‘s “Josephine.” The film won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, which is a double that only happens when a film has genuinely taken over Sundance conversation.

The last few films to have won both the audience and jury prizes include “CODA,” “Minari,” “The Birth of a Nation,” “Me, and Earl and the Dying Girl,” “Whiplash,” “Fruitvale Station,” and “Precious”— four of those titles went on to get Oscar-nominated for best picture.

De Araújo‘s film, starring Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and newcomer Mason Reeves, drew on the filmmaker’s personal history to tell the story of a young girl who witnesses a sexual assault at the park, and the psychological consequences that result in her trauma.

I’ll have my take on this film, and others, in my Sundance recap, which I hope to publish sometime this weekend.

Grand Jury Prizes

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
“Josephine” (Beth de Araújo)

U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
“Nuisance Bear” (Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman)

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
“Shame And Money” (Visar Morina)

World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
“To Hold A Mountain” (Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić)

NEXT Innovator Award
“The Incomer” (Louis Paxton)

Audience Awards

U.S. Dramatic
“Josephine” (Beth de Araújo)

U.S. Documentary
“American Pachuco: The Legend Of Luis Valdez” (David Alvarado)

World Cinema Dramatic
“Hold Onto Me” (Myrsini Aristidou)

World Cinema Documentary
“One In A Million” (Itab Azzam)

NEXT

“Aanikoobijigan” (Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil)

Jury awards for Directing, Screenwriting, and Editing

Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic
Josef Kubota Wladyka (“Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!)

Directing Award: U.S. Documentary
J.M. Harper (”Soul Patrol”)

Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Andrius Blaževičius (”How To Divorce During The War”)

Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes (”One In A Million”)

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic
Liz Sargent (”Take Me Home”)

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary
Matt Hixon (”Barbara Forever”)