Tonight they handed out the trophies at Sundance: Unprepossessing plexiglass widgets that nevertheless carry a lot of weight. As expected, major awards were won by ?Trouble the Water,? (Grand Jury Prize for Documentary), "American Teen" (Best Directing: Documentary), and "Ballast" (both Directing: Dramatic and Excellence in Cinematography). Flying in under the radar was Courtney Hunt?s ?Frozen River,? about a desperately poor single mom (Melissa Leo) and a Mohawk girl (Misty Upham) who smuggle immigrants from Canada; it won the grand jury prize for dramatic film but until halfway through Quentin Tarantino's announcement of the award (see below), most people in the audience thought he was talking about "Ballast."
?Sleep Dealer,? a cyberpunk drama set in the near-future, won both the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Alfred P. Sloan for outstanding film focusing on science or technology. The audience award for documentary, voted on by festivalgoers, was ?Fields of Fuel,? about the alternative-fuels movement, while ?The Wackness? won the audience award for drama for its baroque comic look at a high school drug dealer (Josh Peck, of Nickelodeon?s ?Drake and Josh?) and his pothead therapist (Ben Kingsley).
One of my festival favorites won two awards in the world cinema categories. ?Man on Wire,? a poetic essay about tightrope walker Philippe Petit?s 1974 crossing of the World Trade Center towers, won both the audience award and the grand jury prize for documentaries. The Swedish coming-of-age drama ?King of Ping Pong? won the grand jury prize for drama as well as a cinematography prize, while ?Captain Abu Raed,? the first feature film to be made in Jordan in 50 years, won the world cinema audience award for drama. The full list of winners is at the Sundance site.
The Sundance awards aren?t a high-profile glamour sweepstakes like the Oscars or the Golden Globes. Actually, they?re more important: a crucial vote of approval to the filmmakers who need it most, those toiling in the fields of low-budget, independent fiction films and documentaries. Or as ?Ballast? cinematographer Lol Crawley said as he regarded his trophy with stunned bemusement, ?Well, this is going to help.?
Okay, now for some video, and time to put the kids to bed, 'cause some of this stuff is what your grandma would call salty. The awards ceremony was emceed by William H. Macy, who got well and truly risque in an opening riff that managed to tie half the titles of movies playing in the festival with an anecdote about hotel self-pleasure. And his wife was in the audience! Not all of it worked but points for trying, and more points for carrying off the ridiculous western outfit with aplomb.
Here's gentle giant Lance Hammer saying thanks to the jury for voting him best director in the U.S. dramatic category.
Here's "Trouble the Water" directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal tearing up while accepting the grand jury prize for U.S. documentary.
Cover junior's ears again: Quentin Tarantino hands out the grand jury prize for U.S. dramatic film with what's for him a reasonably sedate monologue.
"Frozen River" director and grand jury prize winner Courtney Hunt accepts her award.
I go home, go sleep now.
