Nanny has won the U.S. Grand Jury Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Other films taking the virtual fest’s top prizes include The Exiles, Navalny, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Utama, and All That Breathes.
From director-screenwriter Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny stars Anna Diop as Aisha, a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for an Upper East Side family in New York City, trying to earn enough money to bring her son to the United States.
“This film cannot be contained by any one genre — it’s visually stunning, masterfully acted, impeccably designed from sound to visual effects, and the overall vision, expertly guided by Nikyatu Jusu comes together offering its audience an electrifying experience,” offered Chelsea Bernard in her juror’s statement. Bernard acted as a juror on the U.S. Competition films along with Marielle Heller and Payman Maadi.
The top doc prize went to Ben Klein and Violet Columbus’ The Exiles, which tracks down three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre, in order to find closure on an abandoned film Christine Choy began shooting with Renee Tajima-Peña in 1989.
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prizes were awarded to Utama for dramatic and All the Breathes for documentary.
The top Audience Award for a U.S. Dramatic title went to Cha Cha Real Smooth, which sold to Apple out of the fest, while the U.S. Documentary prize went to Navalny, the HBO Max and CNN Films title about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
“The 2022 Sundance Film Festival once again met our audience wherever they happened to be,” said festival director Tabitha Jackson in a statement. “Whether you watched from home or one of our seven satellite screens, this year’s Festival expressed a powerful convergence; we were present, together, as a community connected through the work. And it is work that has already changed those who experienced it.”
See the full list of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival winners below.
GRAND JURY PRIZES
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Nikyatu Jusu for Nanny
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Ben Klein and Violet Columbus for The Exiles
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic: Alejandro Loayza Grisi for Utama
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary: Shaunak Sen for All That Breathes
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary: Navalny
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic: Cha Cha Real Smooth
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Girl Picture
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary: The Territory
Audience Award: NEXT: Framing Agnes
DIRECTING, SCREENWRITING & EDITING
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary: Reid Davenport for I Didn’t See You There
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic: Jamie Dack for Palm Trees and Power Lines
World Cinema Documentary: Simon Lereng Wilmont for A House Made Of Splinters
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Maryna Er Gorbach for KLONDIKE
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic: K.D. Dávila for Emergency
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary: Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput for Fire Of Love
SPECIAL JURY AWARDS
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision: Bradley Rust Gray for blood
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington, and Michael K Williams for 892
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change: Aftershock
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision: Descendant
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft The Territory
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking: Midwives
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit: Leonor Will Never Die
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting: Teresa Sánchez for Dos Estaciones
SHORT FILM AWARDS
Short Film Grand Jury Prize: The Headhunter’s Daughter
Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction: IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction:Dania Bdeir for Warsha
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction: Samir Karahoda for Displaced
Short Film Jury Award: Animation: Joe Hsieh for Night Bus
Short Film Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast: Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro, and Lorre Motta for A wild patience has taken me here
Short Film Special Jury Award: Screenwriting: Sara Driver for Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver
Source: Hollywood
