Park City • A satire about preparing for war, a chronicle of Black farmers, a love story from India, a profile of a trailblazing Iranian woman and a dissection of America’s true-crime obsession were among the movies that won top honors at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
The wartime comedy “Atropia” won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition. The movie is set in the California desert in 2006, where military contractors have built a simulation of an Iraqi village used to train U.S. soldiers in the situations they’re likely to face when deployed. The story centers on an Iraqi American actress (Alia Shawkat) and a returned soldier (Callum Turner) portraying an “insurgent,” who start to fall for each other.
“This movie is so strange,” “Atropia’s” writer-director, Hailey Gates, said as she accepted her award at The Ray theater in Park City on Friday. “I did not think that anybody would be interested in a military-industrial complex romantic comedy, but I guess you guys also like laughing at the flimsy American empire.”
“Atropia” was the unanimous pick among the three jurors. In their citation, the jury wrote that the film was “both hilarious and damning in its portrayal of the theater of war.” The jury also praised Gates’ “biting criticism of American imperialism and boundary-pushing storytelling.”
(Sundance Institute) Alia Shawkat plays an actress in a military role-playing facility in director Hailey Gates' "Atropia," an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, in the U.S. Dramatic competition.
At the movie’s Eccles Theatre premiere, Gates said she was inspired by such satirical wartime comedies as Robert Altman’s “M*A*S*H” and Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not to Be.” Gates has another connection to Altman: Her grandmother, screenwriter and director Joan Tewkesbury — a frequent Sundance lab adviser to whom Gates dedicated her award — wrote Altman’s “Thieves Like Us” and “Nashville.”
The Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary competition went to “Seeds,” director Brittany Shyne’s profile of Black generational farmers in the U.S. South.
The jury praised Shyne for taking “us deep inside an essentially overlooked pocket of our country, whose residents struggle to hold onto their heritage as their way of life has come under threat.”
Shyne, accepting her award, expressed gratitude to the farmers she met. “I have so much reverence and respect for you,” she said. “Thank you for sharing your beautiful lives with me.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brittany Shyne, at left and director of "Seeds," at the Sundance Film Festival Awards in Park City on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
The Indian drama “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears),” directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition.
It centers on an urban Indian who goes to the country to mourn his father, and bonds with a local farmer. The jury called it “the great modern love story” and that “we wished to be loved in the same way.”
In the World Cinema Documentary competition, the Grand Jury Prize was given to “Cutting Through Rocks,” directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni.
The film centers on a woman in Iran — the first woman to be elected council woman in her village — who trains teen girls to ride motorcycles and works to end child marriages. The jury complimented the filmmakers for capturing the story of “a fearless eccentric who confronts male-dominated society.”
In the Next program, dedicated to offbeat and lower-budget movies, the one-person jury — actor Elijah Wood — gave the Innovator Award to director Charlie Shackleton for “Zodiac Killer Project.” In the movie, Shackleton covers his failed effort to make a documentary about the infamous “Zodiac Killer,” and reflects on America’s obsession with true-crime programming.
Wood wrote that Shackleton’s film “truly stood out for its innovation, its structure, its wild pivot from its original inspiration, the brilliant and hilarious 16mm panning and zooming location shots, and its funny and insightful comedy on the very kind of film it was originally meant to be.”
Writer-director James Sweeney’s dark comedy “Twinless” won two awards: The Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition, and a special jury prize for actor Dylan O’Brien, who portrays twins in the film.
Another multiple winner was the documentary “André Is an Idiot,” an irreverent look at a man’s battle with colon cancer, which won the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary competition and the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Prize for Parker Laramie’s editing.
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Eve Victor for “Sorry, Baby,” a comedy-drama about a literature professor whose life is stuck after a personal tragedy. Victor also directed the film, and plays the professor.
The award winners will be among the movies screening over the festival’s final weekend, in venues in Park City and Salt Lake City. Also, 52 feature-length films and most of the short films will be available for streaming on the festival’s online portal, now through Sunday.
Here is the full list of award winners for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival:
U.S. Dramatic
Grand Jury Prize • “Atropia,” written and directed by Hailey Gates.
Audience Award • “Twinless,” written and directed by James Sweeney.
Directing Award • Rashad Flett, “Ricky.”
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award • Eva Victor, “Sorry, Baby.”
Special Jury Prize for Acting • Dylan O’Brien, “Twinless.”
Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast • The cast of “Plainclothes.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Reid Davenport, director of the documentary "Life After," celebrates at the Sundance Film Festival Awards in Park City on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. Davenport won a Special Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary competition.
U.S. Documentary
Grand Jury Prize • “Seeds,” directed by Brittany Shyne.
Audience Award • “André Is an Idiot,” directed by Tony Benna.
Directing Award • Geeta Gandbhir, “The Perfect Neighbor.”
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award • Parker Laramie, “André Is an Idiot.”
Special Jury Prize • “Life After,” directed by Reid Davenport.
Special Jury Prize for Archival Storytelling • Isabel Castro, “Selena y Los Dinos.”
World Cinema Dramatic
Grand Jury Prize • “Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)” (India, United Kingdom, Canada), written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade.
Audience Award • “DJ Ahmet” (North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia), directed by Georgi M. Unkovski.
Directing Award • Alireza Khatami, “The Things You Kill” (Turkey, France, Poland, Canada).
Special Jury Prize for Writing • Chloé Robichaud & Catherine Léger, “Two Women” (Canada).
Special Jury Prize for Creative Vision • Georgi M. Unkovski, “DJ Ahmet” (North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia).
World Cinema Documentary
Grand Jury Prize • “Cutting Through Rocks” (Iran, Germany, United States, Netherlands, Qatar, Chile, Canada), directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni.
Audience Award • “Prime Minister” (United States), directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz.
Directing Award • Mystyslav Chernov, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” (Ukraine).
Special Jury Prize for Freedom of Expression • “Coexistence, My Ass!” (United States, France), directed by Amber Fares.
Special Jury Prize • “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” (Denmark, Czech Republic), directed by David Borenstein.
Next
(Chosen by a jury of one: Actor Elijah Wood.)
Next Innovator Award • “Zodiac Killer Project,” directed by Charlie Shackleton.
Audience Award • “East of Wall,” written and directed by Kate Beecroft.
Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast • “Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo).”
Alfred P. Sloan Prize
(Given to a movie that depicts science or technology. Announced before the festival.)
• “Sally,” directed by Cristina Costantini.
Short Film Awards
(Awarded Tuesday)
(National Library of Scotland | Sundance Institute) An image from "The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing" by Theo Panagopoulos, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and the winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
Grand Jury Prize • “The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing” (United Kingdom), directed by Theo Panagopoulos.
Jury Award: U.S. Fiction • “Trokas Duras” (United States), directed by Jazmin Garcia.
Jury Award: International Fiction • “Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites” (Cambodia, France), directed by Chheangkea.
Jury Award: Nonfiction • “We Were the Scenery” (United States), directed by Christopher Radcliff.
Jury Award: Animation • “Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado” (France), directed by Natalia León.
Special Jury Award for Animation Directing • May Kindred-Boothby, “The Eating of an Orange” (United Kingdom).
Special Jury Award for Directing • Loren Waters, “Tiger” (United States).
