The Sundance Movie Pageant introduced its 2025 awards throughout a ceremony in Park Metropolis, Utah, on Friday. “Atropia,” directed by Hailey Gates, received the U.S. dramatic competitors’s grand jury prize for its darkly comedic tackle the intersection of warfare and efficiency, whereas Brittany Shyne’s “Seeds,” an intimate exploration of Black generational farmers within the South, was awarded the U.S. documentary competitors’s prime honor.
A biting satire set inside a army role-playing facility, “Atropia,” which stars Alia Shankar, Callum Turner and Chloë Sevigny, follows an aspiring actor who falls in love with a soldier forged as an rebel, forcing them each to reckon with the blurred traces between efficiency and actuality. The jury praised Gates’ characteristic debut as “both hilarious and damning in its portrayal of the theater of war.” “Seeds” was acknowledged for its poetic and deeply private portrait of Black farmers preventing to protect their land and heritage.
On the earth cinema classes, the dramatic grand jury prize was awarded to “Sabar Bonda” (Cactus Pears), a co-production from India, the U.Ok. and Canada directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade. The movie tells the story of a metropolis dweller returning to his rural hometown for a mourning interval and forming an surprising bond with an area farmer. The documentary grand jury prize went to “Cutting Through Rocks,” directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Reza Eyni, which follows a groundbreaking councilwoman in a rural Iranian village as she fights in opposition to patriarchal traditions.
The NEXT Innovator Award, given to a movie within the competition’s part that highlights daring and unconventional storytelling, was awarded to Charlie Shackleton’s “Zodiac Killer Project,” a meditation on the true-crime style informed by means of 16mm footage of places the filmmaker needed to abandon after his possibility rights for a novel had been declined.
“Twinless,” a dramedy about two males who meet in a twin bereavement help group, received the U.S. dramatic viewers award, whereas “André Is an Idiot,” a darkly comedian documentary a few man confronting his personal mortality, was honored within the U.S. documentary class.
On the earth cinema competitors, “DJ Ahmet,” a few North Macedonian teenager navigating household expectations and his love for music, took the viewers award for drama, whereas “Prime Minister,” a behind-the-scenes portrait of former New Zealand chief Jacinda Ardern, received for documentary.
The NEXT viewers award went to “East of Wall,” a neo-Western a few rebellious horse coach and a gaggle of wayward youngsters.
Amongst different jury awards, the directing prize within the U.S. dramatic competitors went to Rashad Frett for “Ricky,” a few man battling the challenges of life after incarceration, whereas the U.S. documentary directing award was introduced to Geeta Gandbhir for “The Perfect Neighbor,” an examination of Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” legal guidelines. The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Eva Victor for “Sorry, Baby,” a darkish comedy a few younger girl processing trauma.
Farmer Willie Head Jr. within the documentary “Seeds.”
(Brittany Shyne)
Dylan O’Brien acquired a particular jury award for performing in “Twinless,” whereas “Plainclothes,” a drama about an undercover officer assigned to entrap homosexual males within the Nineties, was honored for ensemble forged. Within the documentary class, “Selena y Los Dinos,” a portrait of the late Tejano famous person Selena Quintanilla, was awarded a particular jury prize for archival storytelling, and “Life After” received a particular jury award for its thought-provoking investigation of a historic right-to-die case.
Whereas this 12 months’s competition was comparatively quiet on the dealmaking entrance, the honorees hope to observe the trajectory of different latest Sundance prize winners that went on to Oscar glory, together with “CODA,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Summer of Soul” and “Minari.”
The forty first version of the competition concludes on Sunday.
