Winning an award at Sundance Film Festival boosts a documentary films chances for widespread distribution--which means you might actually be able to see them at a theater near you.
Industry insiders say 2008's crop of documentaries was particularly rich and varied--better and more interesting than the narrarative features. So, keep these ten doc awards winners on your radar:
- Grand Jury Prize: Trouble The Water, directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Armed with a video camera, an rap artist and her husband document their survival in flooded post-Katrina New Orleans.
- World Cinema Jury Prize: Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh (UK), chronicles Philippe Petit's daring dance on a wire suspended between New York's now lost Twin Towers, and his subsequent arrest for what is referred to as “the artistic crime of the century.”
- Audience Award: Fields of Fuel, directed by Josh Tickell, investigates America 's unhealthy addiction to oil, and looks for solutions in unexpected places.
- World Cinema Audience Award: Man on Wire, again. This one must be especially good!
- Directing Award: Nanette Burstein for American Teen (which, as noted in a previous blog post, will be distributed by Paramount Vantage), an irreverent cinema vérité doc following four Indiana high school seniors and providing a unique glimpse into Midwestern life.
- World Cinema Directing Award: Nino Kirtadze (France) for Durakovo: Village of Fools, about life in a castle outside Moscow, where Mikhail Morozov and his young initiates are establishing a rapidly growing right-wing movement.
- Documentary Editing Award: Joe Bini for Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, a documentary (which, as previously reported, will be distributed by HBO) delving into the scandal and tragedy leading up to the legendary film director's flight from the United States.
- World Cinema Documentary Editing: Irena Dol (New Zealand) The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, about artist Vanessa Beecroft and how her adoption of Sudanese orphans effects her life and work.
- Excellence in Cinematography: Phillip Hunt and Steven Sebring for Patti Smith: Dream of Life, an revealing portrait of the legenary poet, painter, musician and singer.
- World Cinema Cinematography: al Massad (Jordan) for Recycle, showing how a Jordanian man living in Muslim leader Abu Musa Al Zarqawi's hometown manages to support his family in tense times.
- Special Jury Prize: Lisa F. Jackson for directing Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, a film about the heartbreaking hardships of rape survivors.
We'll keep you updated about release dates for these films, so keep checking in.
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