Here Are The Winners From The 2016 Sundance Film Festival

Chris Pizzello/AP
Culture

The 2016 Sundance Film Festival has come to an end. With the success of slave-revolt film The Birth of a Nation –which sold to Fox Searchlight in a historic deal for $17.5 million – and breakout performances from Tika Sumpter as First Lady Michelle Obama in Southside With You and Charlie Heaton as emerging teen Mark in As You Are, it is safe to say that the film festival was a success.

Sundance held several competitions, including U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Dramatic, World Documentary and Shorts.

Unsurprisingly, Nate Parker's depiction of 1831 slave rebellion leader Nat Turner won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for a narrative film and won the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic. "Thank you Lord, thank you Sundance," Parker said when accepting the awards, according to Deadline. "I've seen first-hand that people are open to the idea of change, and the fact that this is happening means everything to me."

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Weiner, the film depicting the sexting scandal and downfall of former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, won the U.S. documentary grand prize. "We didn't know this would happen and it's incredible. Being around all you filmmakers is heartwarming," Weiner director Elyse Steinberg said, according to the Sundance official live blog. "To all the supporters out there...and Sundance institute. There have been so many people who supported this film."

 The film was directed by Steinberg and Josh Kriegman. 

Roger Ross Williams, the director of Life, Animated, a documentary about an autistic man who memorized Disney animated movies in order to communicate after years of silence, won a directing award at Sundance.

"Alright, I'm overwhelmed. You know in the age of #OscarSoWhite and lack of diversity in Hollywood, I want to thank the Institute for thinking of artists like me," Williams, the first African-American director to win an Oscar in 2010, said while accepting the award. "You [are] never directing [in] a vacuum so I want to thank my producer, my editor...everyone who worked on this film. Owen Suskind is an amazing individual. He taught me that people with autism have so much to teach the world. Thank you so much."

Women ran away with the World Cinema category, with Israeli director Elite Zexer winning the dramatic grand jury award for Sand Storm, Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska winning the Special Jury Award for Unique Vision and Design for The Lure and Iranian director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami winning the documentary grand jury award for Sonita.

"The award was when I started working with Sonita every day. She awarded me with emotion," Ghaem Maghami said during her acceptance speech. "She was the daughter I never had. It's great to be at Sundance. We are so happy. Thank you so much."

Below is the full list of the Sundance winners, according to ABC News.

U.S. DRAMATIC

Audience Award

Grand Jury Prize

Directing

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

Special Jury Award – Individual Performance

Special Jury Award – Individual Performance

Special Jury Award – Breakthrough Performance

Special Jury Award

U.S. DOCUMENTARY

Grand Jury Prize

Audience Award

Directing

Special Jury Award – Vérité Filmmaking

Special Jury Award – Writing

Special Jury Award – Social Impact Filmmaking

NEXT Audience Award

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC

Audience Award

Grand Jury Prize

Directing Award

Special Jury Award – Unique Vision and Design

Special Jury Award – Screenwriting

Special Jury Award – Acting

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY

Grand Jury Prize

Directing

Special Jury Award – Best Editing

Special Jury Award – Best Cinematography

Special Jury Award – Best Debut Feature

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

SHORT FILM PRIZES

Short Film Grand Jury Prize

Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction

Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction

Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction

Short Film Jury Award: Animation

Short Film Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance

Short Film Special Jury Award for Best Direction

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