Sundance Film Festival 2021 will be here before you know it, so isn’t it fair if we take a look at all the masterpieces that have been screened at the Sundance movie festival in the past 5 years?
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Sundance has always had a long-standing tradition of bringing the world’s finest entertainment pieces at one place. For all the movie enthusiasts and short filmmakers, Sundance is like a treat that they will never be able to get enough of.
So, if you are planning on revisiting the history of Sundance to take some time out and watch the best Sundance movies of the last five years, you just got your wish.
Sundance Film Festival Winners of 2015
Special Jury Award Winners
- Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
- Directing Award: Dramatic – Robert Eggers for The Witch
- Cinematography Award: Dramatic – Brandon Trost for The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- Editing Award: Dramatic – Lee Haugen for Dope
- Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award – Tim Talbott for The Stanford Prison Experiment
- Special Jury Prize for Collaborative Vision: Dramatic – Jennifer Phang and Jacqueline Kim for Advantageous
- Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – The Wolfpack by Crystal Moselle
- Directing Award: Documentary – Matthew Heineman for Cartel Land
- Cinematography Award: Documentary – Matthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll for Cartel Land
- Special Jury Prize for Breakout First Feature: Documentary – Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe for (T)error
- Special Jury Prize for Verité Filmmaking: Documentary – Western by Bill and Turner Ross
- Special Jury Prize for Social Impact: Documentary – 3½ Minutes by Marc Silver
World Cinema Jury Award Winners
- World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic – Slow West by John Maclean
- World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic – Alanté Kavaïté for The Summer of Sangailé
- World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic – Germain McMicking for Partisan
- World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Acting: Dramatic – Regina Casé and Camila Márdila for The Second Mother
- World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Acting: Dramatic – Jack Reynor for Glassland
- World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – The Russian Woodpecker by Chad Gracia
- World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary – Kim Longinotto for Dreamcatcher
- World Cinema Editing Award: Documentary – Jim Scott for How to Change the World
- World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Impact: Documentary – Pervert Park by Frida and Lasse Barkfors
- World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Unparalleled Access: Documentary – The Chinese Mayor by Hao Zhou
Audience Award Winners
- Audience Award: Dramatic – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
- Audience Award: Documentary – Meru by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
- World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic – Umrika by Prashant Nair
- World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Dark Horse by Louise Osmond
- Best of NEXT Audience Award – James White by Josh Mond
Short Film Award Winners
- Short Film Grand Jury Prize – World of Tomorrow by Don Hertzfeldt
- Short Film Jury Award: Animation – Storm hits jacket by Paul Cabon
- Short Film Jury Award: International – Oh Lucy! by Atsuko Hirayanagi
- Short Film Jury Award: Non-Fiction – The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul by Kitty Green
- Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction – SMILF by Frankie Shaw
- Special Jury Prize for Acting: Short Filmmaking – Laure Calamy for Back Alley by Cécile Ducrocq
- Special Jury Prize for Visual Poetry: Short Filmmaking – Object by Paulina Skibińska
- Alfred P. Sloan Prize – The Stanford Prison Experiment
Sundance Film Festival Winners of 2016
The award-winning movies of 2016 have been enlisted below,
Grand Jury Award Winners
- Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – The Birth of a Nation by Nate Parker
- Directing Award: Dramatic – Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan for Swiss Army Man
- Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award – Chad Hartigan for Morris From America
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award – Miles Joris-Peyrafitte for As You Are
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance – Joe Seo for Spa Night
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Individual Performance – Melanie Lynskey for The Intervention and Craig Robinson for Morris from America
- Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Weiner by Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman
- Directing Award: Documentary – Roger Ross Williams for Life, Animated
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Penny Lane and Thom Stylinski for NUTS!
- Special Jury Prize for Social Impact: Documentary – Trapped by Dawn Porter
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Writing – Robert Greene for Kate Plays Christine
- Special Jury Prize for Verité Filmmaking: Documentary – The Bad Kids by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe
World Cinema Award Winners
- World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Sand Storm by Elite Zexer
- World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic – Felix van Groeningen for Belgica
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting – Vicky Hernandez and Manolo Cruz for Between Land and Sea
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting – Ana Katz and Inés Bortagaray for Mi Amiga del Parque
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Unique Vision & Design – The Lure by Agnieszka Smoczyńska
- World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
- World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary – Michal Marczak for All These Sleepless Nights
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Debut Feature – Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel for When Two Worlds Collide
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography – Pieter-Jan De Pue for The Land of the Enlightened
- World Cinema Editing Award: Documentary – Mako Kamitsuna and John Maringouin for We Are X
Audience Award Winners
- Audience Award: Dramatic – The Birth of a Nation by Nate Parker
- Audience Award: Documentary – Jim: The James Foley Story by Brian Oakes
- World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic – Between Sea and Land by Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo
- World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
- Best of NEXT Audience Award – First Girl I Loved by Kerem Sanga
Short Film Award Winners
- Short Film Grand Jury Prize – Thunder Road by Jim Cummings
- Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction – The Procedure by Calvin Lee Reeder
- Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction – Maman(s) by Maïmouna Doucouré
- Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction – Bacon & God’s Wrath by Sol Friedman
- Short Film Jury Award: Animation – Edmond by Nina Gantz
- Short Film Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance – Grace Glowicki for Her Friend Adam
- Short Film Special Jury Award for Best Direction – Ondřej Hudeček for Peacock
- Alfred P. Sloan Prize – Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra
Sundance Film Festival Winners of 2017
All the award-winning movies of 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival have been mentioned below,
Grand Jury Prize Award Winners
- Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore by Macon Blair
- Audience Award: Dramatic – Crown Heights by Matt Ruskin
- Directing Award: Dramatic – Eliza Hittman for Beach Rats
- Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award – David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer for Ingrid Goes West
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance – Chanté Adams for Roxanne Roxanne
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Director – Maggie Betts for Novitiate
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography – Daniel Landin for The Yellow Birds
- Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini
- Directing Award: Documentary – Peter Nicks for The Force
- U.S. Documentary Orwell Award – Icarus by Bryan Fogel
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Kim Roberts and Emiliano Battista for Unrest
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling – Yance Ford for Strong Island
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking – Amanda Lipitz for Step
World Cinema Award Winners
- World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – The Nile Hilton Incident by Tarik Saleh
- World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic – Francis Lee for God’s Own Country
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting – Kirsten Tan for Pop Aye
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematic Visions – Geng Jun for Free and Easy
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography – Manuel Dacosse for Axolotl Overkill
- World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – Last Men in Aleppo by Feras Fayyad
- World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary – Pascale Lamche for Winnie
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Masterful Storytelling – Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana for Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography – Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva for Machines
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing – Ramona S. Diaz for Motherland
- Audience Award: Documentary – Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski
- World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic – I Dream in Another Language by Ernesto Contreras
- World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower by Joe Piscatella
- Best of NEXT Audience Award – Gook by Justin Chon
- Alfred P. Sloan Prize – Marjorie Prime by Michael Almereyda
Sundance Film Festival Winners of 2018
Here are the Sundance Film Festival award winners of 2018 that you must have a look at,
- U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award: The Miseducation of Cameron Post, directed by Desiree Akhavan
- U.S. Dramatic Audience Award: Burden, directed by Andrew Heckler
- U.S. Dramatic Directing Award: The Kindergarten Teacher, directed by Sara Colangelo
- U.S. Dramatic Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Nancy, written by Christina Choe
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Outstanding First Feature: Monsters and Men, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking: I Think We’re Alone Now, directed by Reed Morano
- U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting: Benjamin Dickey, Blaze
- U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize Award: Kailash (later released as The Price of Free), directed by Derek Doneen
- U.S. Documentary Audience Award: The Sentence, directed by Rudy Valdez
- U.S. Documentary Directing Award, On Her Shoulders, directed by Alexandria Bombach
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact: Crime + Punishment, directed by Stephen Maing
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Hale County This Morning, This Evening, directed by RaMell Ross
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking: Minding the Gap, directed by Bing Liu
- U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling: Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle
- World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize: Butterflies, directed by Tolga Karacelik
- World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award: The Guilty, directed by Gustav Moller
- World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award: And Breathe Normally, directed by Isold Uggadottir
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting: Valeria Bertuccelli, The Queen of Fear
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Screenwriting: Time Share (Tiempo Compartido), written by Julio Chavezmontes and Sebastián Hofmann
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting: Dead Pigs, directed by Cathy Yan
- World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize: Of Fathers and Sons, directed by Talal Derki
- World Cinema Documentary Audience Award: This Is Home, directed by Alexandra Shiva
- World Cinema Documentary Directing Award: Shirkers, directed by Sandi Tan
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., presented to director Stephen Loveridge and M.I.A.
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Genesis 2.0, Peter Indergand and Maxim Arbugaev
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing: Our New President, Maxim Pozdorovkin and Matvey Kulakov
- NEXT Audience Award: Searching, directed by Aneesh Chaganty
- NEXT Innovator Award: (tie) Night Comes On, directed by Jordana Spiro; We the Animals, directed by Jeremiah Zagar
- Short Film Grand Jury Prize: Matria, directed by Alvaro Gago
- Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction: Hair Wolf, directed by Mariama Diallo
- Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction: Would You Look at Her, directed by Goran Stolevski
- Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction: The Trader (Sovdagari), directed by Tamta Gabrichidze
- Short Film Jury Award: Animation: Glucose, directed by Jeron Braxton
- Special Jury Awards: Emergency, directed by Carey Williams; Fauve, directed by Jérémy Comte; and For Nonna Anna, directed by Luis De Filippis.
- Sundance Institute Open Borders Fellowship Presented by Netflix: Of Fathers and Sons (Syria), directed by Talal Derki; Untitled film (India), directed by Chaitanya Tamhane; and Night on Fire, directed by Tatiana Huezo
- Sundance Institute / NHK Award: His House, directed by Remi Weekes.
- Sundance Institute Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: Searching, Aneesh Chaganty, and Sev Ohanian
- Sundance Institute / Amazon Studios Producers Award: Sev Ohanian
Sundance Film Festival Winners of 2019
The Sundance award-winning movies of 2019 have been enlisted below,
- US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize: Clemency
- US Dramatic Audience Award: Brittany Runs a Marathon
- US Dramatic Directing: Joe Talbot for The Last Black Man in San Francisco
- US Dramatic Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Pippa Bianco for Share
- US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft: Alma Har’ el for Honey Boy
- US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Collaboration: The Last Black Man in San Francisco
- US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance: Rhianne Barreto for Share
- US Documentary Grand Jury Prize: One Child Nation
- US Documentary Audience Award: Knock Down the House
- US Documentary Directing: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert for American Factory
- US Documentary Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency: Jacqueline Olive for Always in Season
- US Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker: Liza Mandelup for Jawline
- US Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Luke Lorentzen for Midnight Family
- World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize: The Souvenir
- World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award: Queen of Hearts
- World Cinema Dramatic Directing: Lucía Garibaldi for The Sharks
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Alejandro Landes for Monos
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting: Krystyna Janda for Dolce Fine Giornata
- World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality: Makoto Nagahisa for We Are Little Zombies
- World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize: Honeyland
- World Cinema Documentary Audience Award: Sea of Shadows
- World Cinema Documentary Directing: Mads Brügger for Cold Case Hammarskjöld
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov for Honeyland
- World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma for Honeyland
- Short Film Grand Jury Prize: Aziza, directed by Soudade Kaadan
- Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction: Green, directed by Susan Andrews Correa
- Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction: Dunya’s Day, directed by Raed Alsemari
- Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction: Ghosts of Sugar Land, directed by Bassam Tariq
- Short Film Jury Award: Animation: Reneepoptosis, directed by Renee Zhan
- Special Jury Award: Directing: Alexandra Lazarowich for Fast Horse; Robert Machoian for The Minors
- NEXT Audience Award: The Infiltrators
- NEXT Innovator Award: The Infiltrators
- Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
- Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Awards: Carly Hugo & Matt Parker for Share; Sev Ohanian for Lori Cheatle
- Sundance Open Borders Fellowship Presented by Netflix: Talal Derki for Of Fathers and Sons; Chaitanya Tamhane and Tatiana Huezo for Night On Fire
So, this is the entire list of Sundance award-winning movies of the last five years. We hope you can now pick the ones you would like to watch before the Sundance Film festival 2021 breaks the charts.
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