Best Documentary The Oath
Breakthrough Director Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers
Breakthrough Performance Ronald Bronstein from Daddy Longlegs
Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You Littlerock (Mike Ott)
Festival Genius Award Waiting For 'Superman'
Best Ensemble Performance Winter's Bone
Best Feature Winter's Bone
Tributes: Hilary Swank, James Schamus, Darren Aronofsky, Robert Duvall
The most interesting detail was that, despite a strong night for Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence did not win Breakthrough Performance. I now kick myself for missing Daddy Longlegs which was on my Sundance schedule at least twice and I kept having to rearrange and missed it. The other immediately noticeable development was in the Documentary field. The field was entirely composed of films that did not make the Academy's Finalist List, Inside Job excepted. The terrorism doc The Oath won.
(Speaking of those Oscar finalist documentaries, I'm only seen a handful but Restrepo, detailing one deployment for US soldiers in Afghanistan is my personal favorite of the lot thus far. Still, none of them compare to Last Train Home, which gets shunned awards-wise.)
What's next for Winter's Bone? Tomorrow will undoubtedly be another good day for the scary Ozark-set drama. The Spirit Award nominees, the big deal for indies, will be announced at 11 AM EST. Expect it to lead the nominations, or thereabouts. From there the awards path for Debra Granik's well loved minor hit gets trickier. Will the critical enthusiasm translate to mainstream movie prizes like the The Globes and Oscar? Stay tuned.
