Amazon’s Brittany Runs a Marathon leads Sundance 2019 Audience Awards
James R | On 03, Feb 2019
After 10 days and 121 feature films, the 2019 Sundance Film Festival officially draws to a close today, and after a quiet year in 2018, this year has seen the return of major spending sprees from Amazon Studios, Netflix, HBO and even Apple’s fledging VOD platform.
Amazon led the charge upon Utah for the latest indie films, acquiring Honey Boy, The Report, Brittany Runs a Marathon and Late Night.
It’s only fitting, then, that Amazon should come away with the top audience prize, with Brittany Runs a Marathon winning the US Dramatic Audience Award last night – a promising sign for Amazon’s hopes at launching a breakout hit. Political campaign portrait Knock Down the House took hom the Audience Award for US Documentary, which will likely be the clincher that the movie needs to officially close its reported deal with Netflix.
Alma Har’el and Shia LaBeouf’s Honey Boy, which Amazon acquired this weekend, was given the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft. The US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting was presented to Rhianne Barreto for Share, which HBO acquired. And the Directing Award: US Documentary was presented to Yance Ford for American Factory, which Netflix reportedly nabbed this week, reuniting the streaming service with the director of Strong Island.
Netflix’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which marks the debut of Chiwetel Ejiofor, was presented with the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize as an outstanding feature film about science or technology. The filmmakers received a $20,000 cash award from Sundance Institute with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The Grand Jury Prizes were awarded to Clemency (U.S. Dramatic), One Child Nation (U.S. Documentary), Honeyland (World Cinema Documentary) and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir (World Cinema Dramatic).
Of the 28 prizes awarded to 23 films – comprising the work of 27 filmmakers – 13 (56.5%) were directed by one or more women; eight (34.8%) were directed by one or more people of color; and one (4.3%) was directed by a person who identifies as LGBTQI+
Here’s the full list of feature film prize winners:
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
One Child Nation
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Clemency
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Honeyland
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
The Souvenir
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary
Knock Down the House
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
Brittany Runs a Marathon
The Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
Sea of Shadows
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Queen of Hearts
Audience Award: NEXT
The Infiltrators
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic
Joe Talbot, for The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
Mads Brügger, for Cold Case Hammarskjöld
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency
Jacqueline Olive, for Always in Season
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Emerging Filmmaker
Liza Mandelup, for Jawline
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing
Todd Douglas Miller, for Apollo 11
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography
Luke Lorentzen, Midnight Family
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Collaboration
Joe Talbot, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting
Rhianne Barreto, for Share
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for No Borders
Hassan Fazzili, for Midnight Traveler
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change
Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, for Honeyland
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography
Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, for Honeyland
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality
Makoto Nagahisa, for WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award
Alejandro Landes, for Monos
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting
Krystyna Janda, for Dolce Fine Giornata
NEXT Innovator Prize
The Infiltrators