Sundance 2009: Documentary Winners

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival recently came to a close, and as is customary, they announced their festival award winners. Sixteen feature-length documentaries were selected from 879 submissions to compete for the Grand Jury Prize, Audience Choice Award among others. 879 submission was a record high as were the total amount of submissions for 2009. 1 out of 879 documentaries was the film I edited entitled, Balancing the Cosmos. Did it win an award at Sundance? No. Did it even get accepted to Sundance? No.

So much about getting accepted to Sundance is timing especially when it comes to documentaries. Each year the festival has a specific focus or list of topics they are most interested in. Apparently ethnographic documentaries weren't on the list. This year topics of interest at the festival were: environmentalism (of course), personal portraits, war and controversy (of course again), socio-political, and others.

Though I didn't have the same luck as the 16 selected documentaries had, it was a learning experience and it taught that finding the right target audience is the key. So out of those 16 films, how many actual win an award? There is a possibility that 12 different films can win awards, but most often certain films receive multiple awards under several different categories. In 2009 there was actually quite a few films which received awards - 11 to be exact.


World Cinema Documentary
John Maringouin -- Big River Man

World Cinema: Documentary -- Editing
Burma VJ

World Cinema: Documentary -- Best Director
Havana Marking -- Afghan Star

World Cinema Documentary: Grand Jury Prize
Rough Aunties

World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary
Afghan Star

U.S. Documentary Audience Award
The Cove

U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize
Good Hair

U.S. Documentary Award -- Best Cinematography
Bob Richman -- The September Issue

U.S. Documentary Award -- Best Editing
Karen Schmeer -- Sergio

U.S. Documentary Award -- Best Director
Natalia Almada -- El General

U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize
We Live in Public

If any Utahns or visitors would like to see these award-winning documentaries they are showing as part of the Best of Fest screenings today only. Go to www.sundance.org/festival to get a complete listing of screening times for both dramatic and documentary films or just read below for the documentary times.

Best of Fest Screening Schedule

Monday, January 26 - Eccles Theatre, Park City

The Cove 6 PM Audience Award: U.S. Documentary

Monday, January 26 - Sundance Resort Screening Room

Rough Aunties 6 PM World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary

Monday, January 26 - Rose Wagner Center, Salt Lake City

Afghan Star 6:30 PM World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary