Josephine and Nuisance Bear lead the winners of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The films won the Grand Jury Prizes for U.S. Drama and Documentary, respectively. Josephine marks the sophomore feature of Beth de Araújo following her 2022 film Soft & Quiet. The film stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan in a story of an eight-year-old girl who witnesses a murder. Josephine entered the festival as one of Sundance’s buzzier titles and emerged a clear favourite by netting the Audience Award for U.S. Drama in addition to the jury prize. Recent films to score the double win include Minarí and eventual Best Picture Oscar winner CODA. Josephine is still seeking distribution as of press time.
Meanwhile, Nuisance Bear by Canadian directors Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman scored top doc honours for U.S. Documentary. The film observes the effects of climate change in the Arctic by following a single bear as it navigates forced shifts to its migration pattern and the humans it encounters along the way. Nuisance Bear expands upon Osio Vanden and Weisman’s short documentary of the same name, which screened the festival circuit to great acclaim in 2021. The A24 film is still looking for a Canadian distributor. This year, all five Oscar nominees for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar debuted at Sundance in 2025.
Sundance will still announced the winner of the overall festival favourite award following the festival. The full list of winners is as follows:
U.S. Grand Jury Prize – Drama: Josephine – Dir./Prod. Beth de Araújo, Prod. David Kaplan, Josh Peters, Marina Stabile, Mark H. Rapaport, Crystine Zhang
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize – Drama: Shame and Memory – Dir./Prod. Visar Morina, Screenwriter: Doruntina Basha, Prod. Fabian Altenried, Sophie Ahrens, Kristof Gerega, Pia Hellentha
U.S. Grand Jury Prize – Documentary: Nuisance Bear – Dir. Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Prod. Michael Code, Will N. Miller, Teddy Leifer
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize – Documentary: To Hold a Mountain – Dir. Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Prod. Quentin Laurent, Rok Biček
NEXT Innovator Award: The Incomer – Dir. Louis Paxton, Prod. Shirley O’Connor, Emily Gotto
Audience Award – U.S. Dramatic: Josephine – Dir./Prod. Beth de Araújo, Prod. David Kaplan, Josh Peters, Marina Stabile, Mark H. Rapaport, Crystine Zhang
Audience Award – U.S. Documentary: American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez – Dir/Prod. David Alvarado, Prod. Lauren DeFilippo, Everett Katigbak, Amanda Pollak
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Hold onto Me – Dir./Prod. Myrsini Aristidou, Prod. Monica Nicolaidou
Audience Award – World Cinema Documentary: One in a Million – Dir. Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Prod. Raney Aronson-Rath, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer
Audience Award – NEXT: Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] – Dir./ Prod. Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, Prod. Steve Holmgren, Grace Remington, Jacque Clark, Franny Alfano
Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic: Josef Kubota Wladyka, Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!
Directing Award – U.S. Documentary: J.M. Harper, Soul Patrol
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic: Andrius Blaževičius, How to Divorce During the War
Directing Award – World Cinema Documentary: Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, One in a Million
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic: Liz Sargent, Take Me Home
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award – U.S. Documentary: Matt Hixon, Barbara Forever
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature: Stephanie Ahn, Bedford Park
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast: Mahshad Bahram, Hana Mana, Farzad Karen, Zohreh Pirnia – The Friend’s House is Here
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence: Who Killed Alex Odeh? – Dir. Jason Osder, William Lafi Youmans, Prod. Dawne Langford, William Lafi Youmans, Jason Osder, Daniel J. Chalfen
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change: The Lake – Dir./Prod. Abby Ellis, Prod. Fletcher Keyes
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Filipiñana – Dir./Prod. Rafael Manuel, Prod. Jeremy Chua, Alex Polunin, Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew, Nadia Turincev, Omar El Kadi
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble: Jessica Gabriel’s Ujah, Amanda Oruh, Tinuade Jemiseye, Binta Ayo Mogaji, Seun Kuti, Bucci Franklin – Lady
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact: Birds of War – Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak, Prod. Sonja Henrici
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance: Everybody To Kenmure Street – Dir./Prod. Felipe Bustos Sierra, Prod. Ciara Barry
NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression: TheyDream – Dir./Prod. William David Caballero, Prod. Erin Ploss-Campoamor, Elaine del Valle, Brad Jones
