{"id":439589,"date":"2026-01-30T21:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/439589\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T21:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:31:08","slug":"josephine-nuisance-bear-win-sundance-grand-jury-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/439589\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Josephine,’ ‘Nuisance Bear’ Win Sundance Grand Jury Prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cJosephine<\/a>,\u201d a family drama that earned raves for the performances of Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and newcomer Mason Reeves when it premiered at Sundance, won the festival\u2019s grand jury prize for U.S. dramatic competition, as well as the audience award for U.S. narrative. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJosephine\u201d director Beth de Ara\u00fajo, who drew on her personal history to tell the story of a young girl who witnesses a crime, fought back tears while accepting the audience prize at Sundance\u2019s awards ceremony in Park City, Utah on Friday. \u201cThank you to the audience for keeping me employed,\u201d de Ara\u00fajo said. \u201cCinema is my church, and it feels so good to come and get this from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNuisance Bear<\/a>,\u201d a look at the impact that tourism and other man-made activities are having on the polar bears that live in Churchill, Manitoba, captured the prize for U.S. documentary competition, while \u201cTo Hold a Mountain,\u201d the story of mother and daughter working to prevent their ancestral mountain from becoming a NATO military training ground, took the award for world cinema documentary. \u201cShame and Money,\u201d a drama about a couple in rural Kosovo who lose their livelihoods, won the grand jury prize for world cinema. The ceremony was politically charged, as many films in the awards selection tell of immigrants and activists.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs this government is attacking notions of diversity, I want this film to showcase that\u00a0diversity isn\u2019t a dirty word\u00a0and will never be a dirty word,\u201d said David Alvarado, director of the audience award winner for U.S. Documentary, \u201cAmerican Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMany of the award-winning films, such as \u201cNuisance Bear\u201d and \u201cJosephine,\u201d have been drawing interest from distributors. Their victories could heat up the bidding by studios and streamers. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe NEXT Innovator Award was given to\u00a0\u201cThe Incomer,\u201d and the NEXT Special Jury Award presented was given to\u00a0\u201cTheyDream.\u201d \u201cThe Incomer\u201d is the story of siblings (Gayle Rankin and Grant O\u2019Rourke) living on a remote Scottish isle whose world is upended by the arrival of an outsider (Domhnall Gleeson). \u201cTheyDream\u201d uses miniatures and motion capture technology to tell the story of 20 years in the life of a Puerto Rican family. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne in a Million\u201d picked up the audience award for world cinema documentary, while \u201cHold Onto Me\u201d won the audience prize for world cinema dramatic. The audience award in the NEXT competition went to \u201cAanikoobijigan [ancestor\/great-grandparent\/great-grandchild],\u201d which looks at tribal repatriation specialists working to return and rebury Indigenous human remains.<\/p>\n

\n\tJosef Kubota Wladyka\u00a0won the directing award for U.S. dramatic for\u00a0\u201cHa-chan, Shake Your Booty!\u201d while\u00a0J.M. Harper\u00a0won the directing prize for U.S. documentary for \u201cSoul Patrol.\u201d \u201cHa-chan,\u201d a crowd-pleasing drama about a grief-stricken woman whose love of ballroom dancing helps her heal, was purchased by Sony Pictures Classics. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe\u00a0directing award for world cinema dramatic\u00a0was presented to\u00a0Andrius Bla\u017eevi\u010dius\u00a0for\u00a0\u201cHow to Divorce During the War,\u201d while Itab Azzam\u00a0and\u00a0Jack MacInnes\u00a0won the world cinema documentary directing prize for\u00a0\u201cOne In A Million.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLiz Sargent (\u201cTake Me Home\u201d) won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for U.S. dramatic, while the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for U.S. documentary\u00a0was presented to\u00a0Matt Hixon\u00a0for\u00a0\u201cBarbara Forever.\u201d\u00a0\u201cBedford Park,\u201d a drama about a woman who forges a connection to the man responsible for her mother\u2019s car accident, won a special jury award for debut feature.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecent films that have won top prizes at Sundance include \u201cSorry, Baby,\u201d \u201cTwinless,\u201d \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor,\u201d \u201cA Real Pain,\u201d \u201cD\u00ecdi (\u5f1f\u5f1f),\u201d \u201cCODA\u201d and \u201cSummer of Soul (\u2026Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised).\u201d Some of those films, such as \u201cCODA,\u201d \u201cA Real Pain\u201d and \u201cSummer of Soul,\u201d won Oscars. Others, such as \u201cTwinless\u201d and \u201cMe and Earl and the Dying Girl,\u201d failed to connect with audiences when they opened in theaters despite scoring honors at Sundance. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2026 Sundance Film Festival<\/a> jury includes:\u00a0Janicza Bravo,\u00a0Nisha Ganatra, and\u00a0Azazel Jacobs\u00a0for the U.S. Dramatic Competition;\u00a0Natalia Almada,\u00a0Justin Chang, and\u00a0Jennie Livingston\u00a0for the U.S. Documentary Competition;\u00a0Ana Katz,\u00a0So Yong Kim, and\u00a0Tatiana Maslany\u00a0for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition;\u00a0Toni Kamau,\u00a0Bao Nguyen, and\u00a0Kirsten Schaffer\u00a0for the World Cinema Documentary Competition;\u00a0A.V. Rockwell,\u00a0Liv Constable-Maxwell, and\u00a0Martin Starr\u00a0for the Short Film Program Competition; and\u00a0John Cooper\u00a0and\u00a0Trevor Groth\u00a0for the NEXT section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJosephine,\u201d a family drama that earned raves for the performances of Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and newcomer Mason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,202786,203505,98265],"class_list":["post-439589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-josephine","tag-nuisance-bear","tag-sundance-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}