Everyone knows that Sundance is a big deal for indie film and the top prizes, so the biggest deals, are the Grand Jury Prizes. Well, congratulations are in order to some of those New Yorkers mentioned in our previous article, but also to some we missed.
First congratulations goes to the winner of the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize for 2023, A Thousand and One, directed by A.V. Rockwell.
A Thousand and One is a New York drama about a young mother (played by Teyana Taylor) who kidnaps her 6-year-old son from the foster care system to give them a chance at a new life.
Props to Rada Studio co-founders Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster. They won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize for their feature Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project.
Intimate vérité, archival footage, and visually innovative treatments of poetry take us on a journey through the dreamscape of legendary poet Nikki Giovanni as she reflects on her life and legacy.
Double congratulations goes out to Maryam Keshavarz for The Persian Version winning the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award as well as the U.S. Dramatic Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.
When a large Iranian-American family gathers for the patriarch's heart transplant in New York, a family secret is uncovered that catapults the estranged mother and daughter into an exploration of the past. Toggling between the United States and Iran over decades, mother and daughter discover they are more alike than they know.
One last shout out to the team of Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker. Their film The Stroll was awarded the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Clarity of Vision.
The history of New York's Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked "The Stroll" for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.