Film News: ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ Claims Top Prize at 2012 Sundance Film Festival

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CHICAGO – “Art is not a competition. But if it were, these would be the winners,” quipped filmmaker Mike Birbiglia at the Jan. 28 awards presentation for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Birbiglia’s deadpan humor would’ve made him an ideal host for the event, and his appearance was one of the few bright spots in a rather disappointing ceremony.

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, stepped in to replace Indie Queen Parker Posey, whose inspired comic turn in Michael Walker’s “Price Check” garnered positive buzz among festivalgoers. The show opened in tears and solemnity as Cooper paid heartfelt tribute to the late film executive Bingham Ray, who suffered a fatal stroke during the festival.

One of the evening’s big winners was Benh Zeitlin’s visually arresting drama “Beasts of the Southern Wild” about a six-year-old girl (Quvenzhané Wallis) who embarks on a search for her mother in the southern Delta. It was acquired by Fox Searchlight and won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, as well as the U.S. Dramatic award for Excellence in Cinematography, presented to Ben Richardson, and the inaugural Sundance Institute Indian Paintbrush Producer’s Award, presented to Dan Janvey and Josh Penn. The Grand Jury Prize for documentary filmmaking went to Eugene Jarecki for “The House I Live In,” which takes a controversial look at the injustice of jailing nonviolent citizens for drug possession. The World Cinema Jury Prize was awarded to Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s documentary, “The Law in These Parts,” a chronicle of Israel’s military legal system and its effect on the Palestinian population, and Andrés Wood’s “Violeta Went to Heaven,” a portrait of Chilean singer Violeta Parra.

Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2012.
Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2012.
Photo credit: Ben Richards

Kirby Dick’s investigation of rape in the U.S. military, “The Invisible War,” snagged the Audience Award along with Ben Lewin’s “The Surrogate,” which stars John Hawkes as a journalist in an iron lung who sets out to lose his virginity. Lewin’s film was one of the few major winners that was backed by star power (the cast also features Helen Hunt and William H. Macy). The picture was acquired by Fox Searchlight and won a Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting. The World Cinema Audience Award went to Musa Syeed’s Kashmir-set drama, “Valley of Saints” and Malik Bendjelloul’s documentary, “Searching for Sugar Man,” about ’70s-era rocker, Rodriguez. “Sugar Man” was one of the most buzzed-about films at the festival, and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics before winning a Special Jury Prize for its Celebration of the Artistic Spirit. Earlier in the ceremony, “Saints” tied with Jake Schreier’s sci-fi buddy movie “Robot & Frank” for the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. Schreier’s film stars Frank Langella and was acquired by Sony Pictures Worldwide and Samuel Goldwyn Films.

In addition to scoring the most laughs, Birbiglia also received the Best of NEXT award for his directorial debut, “Sleepwalk With Me,” which centers on a standup comedian’s struggle with the titular disorder. Other directors awarded for their work included Lauren Greenfield (“The Queen of Versailles”), Ava DuVernay (“Middle of Nowhere”), Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi (“5 Broken Cameras”), and Mads Matthiesen (“Teddy Bear”). Derek Connolly won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for “Safety Not Guaranteed,” a star-studded comedy about time travel headed by Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass. Actress/screenwriter Camila Gutiérrez delivered the night’s most memorable line upon winning the World Cinema Screenwriting Award for “Young & Wild,” along with director/co-writer Marialy Rivas and co-writers Pedro Peirano and Sebastián Sepúlveda. Gutiérrez explained that she didn’t know much English and had only a simple message for those in attendance: “Thanks and have a lot of sex.”

Young and Wild won the World Cinema Screenwriting Award at Sundance 2012.
Young and Wild won the World Cinema Screenwriting Award at Sundance 2012.
Photo credit: Rodrigo Perez

Rounding out the other major winners were Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “DETROPIA,” recipient of the U.S. Documentary Editing Award, and Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky’s “Indie Game: The Movie,” recipient of the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. Cinematographers Jeff Orlowski (“Chasing Ice”), Lars Skree (“Putin’s Kiss”) and David Raedeker (“My Brother the Devil”) were each awarded for their stellar work, while Rasit Celikezer’s Istanbul-set drama “Can” won the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision. “Love Free or Die,” Macky Alston’s documentary about an openly gay bishop, was honored with the Special Jury Prize for an Agent of Change, while Alison Klayman’s “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” about the titular Chinese artist and activist, garnered the Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance. The Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Independent Film Producing was awarded to Andrea Sperling and Jonathan Schwartz for their films “Nobody Walks” and “Smashed,” the latter of which earned praise for its central performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

As usual, several of the festival’s most popular pictures went home empty-handed, but still stand a shot of connecting with mainstream audiences. Festival darlings Paul Dano, Jon Heder and Jena Malone teamed up for So Yong Kim’s “For Ellen,” while rapper Common headlined Sheldon Candis’s crime drama, “LUV.” Joel Edgerton (of “Animal Kingdom” and “Warrior” fame) returned in Kieran Darcy-Smith’s mystery, “Wish You Were Here.” After she became the “It Girl” of Sundance 2011 with her intense portrayal in Sean Durkin’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” Elizabeth Olsen came back this year with an entirely different project, Josh Radnor’s crowd-pleasing comedy, “Liberal Arts,” co-starring Allison Janney and Richard Jenkins. Perhaps one of the festival’s most startling surprises was “V/H/S,” a “found footage” horror anthology from filmmakers including Ti West and Chicago’s own Joe Swanberg, which was acquired by Magnolia Pictures. Sometimes, getting acquired is prize enough.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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