Sundance 2003 Ends in “Splendor”
Monday January 27 1:30 PM ET
Despite the cadre of Hollywood stars who turned out for this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford’s annual 11-day wingding ended as it’s supposed to–with a bunch of unknown filmmakers getting their moment in the sun.
Leading the indie pack at Saturday’s awards was American Splendor, a flick starring Paul Giamatti detailing the bizarro life of eccentric comic book writer Harvey Pekar that took home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature. Splendor, codirected by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, was particularly praised for its clever use of narrative storytelling, animation and documentary footage.
The same applied to Capturing the Friedmans, which told the story of the real-life tragedy of the titular Long Island family stemming from the arrest of the father and son for child molestation. The film, directed by Andrew Jarecki (who also happens to be cofounder and CEO of Moviefone), incorporated the Friedmans’ own home videos and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.
“I just want to thank the jurors for going to this movie and not only experiencing it but coming back and giving this family a chance to be heard,” a deeply affected Jarecki said upon accepting his prize.
And a dwarf was huge at this year’s fest as Tom McCarthy’s The Station Agent, a drama about a little person who takes up residence in an abandoned New Jersey train depot and befriends a grieving artist and a hot dog vendor, snagged Sundance’s Audience Award (Drama), as well as the Waldo Salt Screenwriting prize for its writer-director.
Agent, which was snapped up by Miramax Films last week for $1.5 million and will eventually be released in theaters, stars Patricia Clarkson, who was honored with a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance in that movie–along with the two other films she headlined, Pieces of April and All the Real Girls.
All told, the actress may have set a record by headlining four films at the Park City fest. (The Baroness and the Pig was the only one screened out of competition.)
Charles Busch ( news) also won a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance for playing a cross-dressing diva who plots to kill her hubby with a poisoned suppository in Die Mommy Die, which he also cowrote.
Helmer Catherine Hardwicke nabbed Best Director for Thirteen, the teen drama she penned with her 14-year-old costar Nikki Reed about a young girl who begins to experiment with drugs, sex and petty crime, testing her relationship with her mother.
Sundance, which has a worldwide reputation for discovering and supporting emerging talent in the documentary field, also gave a Best Director Award to first-time filmmaker Jonathan Karsh for My Flesh and Blood, his year-in-the-life portrait of a mother who adopts 11 special-needs children. The documentary also earned the Audience Award in the documentary category.
“I personally believe that if anyone put a camera on this family for one year, they would win an award,” Karsh told the audience at Saturday’s awards gala, which was broadcast on the Sundance Channel and cohosted by Steve Zahn ( news) and Maggie Gyllenhaal ( news).
Additionally, this year’s jury–which included actors Steve Buscemi ( news), Tilda Swinton ( news), Forest Whitaker ( news) and director David O. Russell ( news) (Three Kings)–created a Special Jury Prize for “emotional truth” to single out All the Real Girls and What Alice Found.
The Alfred P. Sloan Prize honoring a film that raises the visibility of science and technology was given to director, Mark Decena for his film, Dopamine. (Decena also pocketed a $20,000 check to go along with his accolade.)
Finally, the Audience Award in the world-cinema category went to Whale Rider, a New Zealand flick about a girl and her desire to fulfill her destiny as the leader of a Maori village.
Here’s a complete list of winners at the 2003 Sundance Fest:
Dramatic Grand Jury Prize: American Splendor
Documentary Grand Jury Prize: Capturing the Friedmans
Dramatic Audience Award: The Station Agent
Documentary Audience Award: My Flesh and Blood
World Cinema Audience Award: Whale Rider
Documentary Directing Award: Jonathan Karsh, My Flesh and Blood
Dramatic Directing Award: Catherine Hardwicke, Thirteen
Cinematography Award (Drama): Derek Cianfrance, Quattro Noza
Cinematography Award (Documentary): Dana Kupper, Gordon Quinn, and Peter Gilbert, Stevie
Freedom of Expression Award: What I Want My Words to Do to You
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Tom McCarthy, The Station Agent
Special Dramatic Jury Prizes for Emotional Truth: All the Real Girls and What Alice Found
Special Dramatic Jury Prizes for Outstanding Performance: Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent, Pieces of April and All the Real Girls) and Charles Busch (Die Mommie Die)
Special Documentary Jury Prizes: The Murder of Emmett Till and A Certain Kind of Death
Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking: Terminal Bar
Alfred P. Sloan Prize: Dopamine
Online Film Festival Viewers Award (Animation): Broken Saints
Online Film Festival Viewers Award (Short Subject): One