CODA, Flee, Hive and Summer of Soul Win Top Sundance 2021 Prizes

On Tuesday, February 2nd, the 2021 Sundance film festival had its last premieres, and as well handed out its awards.  With 73 feature films and 50 short films premiering over 6 days, selected from over 14,000 submissions, there was a lot of variety and plenty of new voices to discover.

Patton Oswalt virtually hosted the awards ceremony which also saw actors Alison Brie, Diego Luna and Shira Haas present this year’s audience awards.  The Grand Jury Prizes were awarded to CODA (U.S Dramatic), Summer of Soul (… Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (U.S Documentary), Flee (World Cinema Documentary) and Hive (World Cinema Dramatic.

The full list of award winners for both features and short films is listed below (links to reviews where available and will be updated).

U.S Dramatic Competition

U.S GRAND JURY PRIZE:  – Siân Heder, for CODA (review)
AUDIENCE AWARD – Siân Heder, for CODA
DIRECTING AWARD  – Siâ Heder, for CODA
WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD – Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, for On the Count of Three (review)
SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR ENSEMBLE CAST – CODA
SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR – Clifton Collins Jr., for Jockey

Emilia Jones in CODA, Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

U.S Documentary Competition

U.S GRAND JURY PRIZE – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, for Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
AUDIENCE AWARD – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, for Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
DIRECTING AWARD – Natalia Almada, for Users
SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR EMERGING FILMMAKER – Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt, for Cusp
SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR NON FICTION EXPERIMENTATION – Theo Anthony, for All Light, Everywhere
JONATHAN OPPENHEIM EDITING AWARD: Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno, for Homeroom

World Cinema Documentary Competition

GRAND JURY PRIZE – Jonas Poher Rasmussen, for Flee
AUDIENCE AWARD – Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, for Writing With Fire
DIRECTING AWARD – Hogir Hirori, for Sabaya
SPECIAL JURY AWARD VÉRITÉ FILMMAKING – Camilla Nielsson, for President
SPECIAL JURY AWARD IMPACT FOR CHANGE – Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, for Writing With Fire

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

GRAND JURY PRIZE – Blerta Basholli, for Hive
AUDIENCE AWARD – Blerta Basholli, for Hive
DIRECTING AWARD – Blerta Basholli, for Hive
SPECIAL JURY AWARD ACTING – Jesmark Scicluna, for Luzzu
SPECIAL JURY AWARD CREATIVE VISION – Baz Poonpiriya, for One for the Road

Yllka Gashi appears in Hive – Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Alexander Bloom

NEXT Competition

AUDIENCE AWARD – Marion Hill, for Ma Belle, Ma Beauty (review)
NEXT INNOVATOR PRIZE – Dash Shaw, for Cryptozoo (review)

Short Film Awards

GRAND JURY PRIZE – Lizard (director Akinola Davies Jr.)
SHORT FILM JURY AWARD U.S FICTION – The Touch of the Master’s Hand (director Gregory Barnes)
SHORT FILM JURY AWARD INTERNATIONAL FICTION – Bambirak (director Zamarin Wahdat)
SHORT FILM JURY AWARD NON FICTION – Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma (director Topaz Jones, rubberband)
SHORT FILM JURY AWARD ANIMATION – Souvenir Souvenir (director Bastien Dubois)
SPECIAL JURY AWARD ACTING – Deanna Gibson for Wiggle Room (director Sam Guest, Julia Baylis)
SPECIAL JURY AWARD SCREENWRITING – Serhat Karaaslan for The Criminals (also directed by Serhat Karaaslan)