The last time our team shared news from the Sundance Film Festival, we signed off by saying we’d see you next year with snow boots on the ground. However, as one Staff Pick alumni (who we’ll keep anonymous) lamented, the omicron variant is a “rude ho,” and COVID-19 once again kept eager attendees from chillin’ IRL in chilly Park City, Utah.
Luckily, one thing our team is really great at is casting our film-hungry eyes on our computer screens and devouring videos on the internet. Trading snow drifts for pixel dust was not ideal, but we made the most of it by watching all 59 short films the fest programmed — catching features made by Staff Pick alumni and meeting with creators, industry folk, and weird clones in the Short Party spaceship. Oh, and then we debated our faves of the fest for our annual unofficial jury award list.
As in past years, we in no way wish to discount the fest’s official winners. Big congrats are in order for Staff Pick alumni Dania Bdeir, who won the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction for the sweet and surprising short, “Warsha.” Brothers Noah and Lewie Kloster continued to charm the film world with their DIY stop frame documentaries about artsy misfits. Their film, “Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver,” garnered main subject Sara Driver a Short Film Special Jury Award for screenwriting from the festival. Congratulations to all of the short-form filmmakers who received official awards.
Here are the films that wowed our team this year:
Grand Jury Prize: “Starf–kers” by Antonio Marziale
U.S Fiction: “Daddy’s Girl” by Lena Hudson
International Fiction: “The Right Words” by Adrian Moyse Dullin
Non-Fiction: “You’ve Never Been Completely Honest” by Joey Izzo
Animation: “Soft Animals” by Renee Zhan
Special Jury Prize – Acting: Antonio Marziale in “Starf–kers,” directed by Antonio Marziale (!)
Special Jury Prize – Directing: Walter Thompson-Hernández for “If I Go Will They Miss Me”
Our team hopes to bring these films (and more!) to Vimeo for all to enjoy as soon as possible.
We are very proud to say that a record number (23!) of Staff Pick alumni had features programmed at Sundance 2022, including Kogonada, Riley Stearns, Mariama Diallo, Kathryn Ferguson, Sierra Pettengill, Mimi Cave, Monia Chokri, Andre Hyland, and many more.
From the seed of three Staff Picked shorts grew a handful of features that played this year. Those are “Palm Trees & Powerlines” by Jamie Dack, who was awarded the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic, “Emergency” by Carey Williams, who received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic, and the LOL-worthy “Brian & Charles” by Jim Archer.
And the crowning jewel of feature awards at Sundance, aka the U.S Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, was awarded to SP alumni Nikyatu Jusu for her horror/drama film, “Nanny.” Jusu is only the second Black female filmmaker to win this prize in Sundance’s 44 year history 👏🏆. Days later, her next feature was picked up by Universal and Monkeypaw.
It’s a true joy to see filmmakers we know from our Staff Picks community share their work at one of the most renowned film festivals in the world. We applaud the featured artists this year, and look forward, as always, to seeing even more familiar names and faces at Sundance 2023.
