As the Sundance Awards come to a close, Grad Film Students and Alumni emerge triumphant.
“HIVE”
Alum Blerta Basholli’s Hive swept the top categories in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, winning the Directing Award, Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize. “Hive” follows Fahrije, who’s husband has been missing since the war in Kosovo. She sets up her own small business to provide for her kids, but as she fights against a patriarchal society that does not support her, she faces a crucial decision. The Sundance Institute called it “a quiet, uplifting gem that highlights the strength in its characters as it proves nothing can stop women on a mission.”
“Bambirak”
The Grad Film community continued to set high standards for the Sundance Shorts programs. Alum Zamarin Wahdat’s thesis film, Bambirak won the Short Film Jury Award for International Fiction, while student Gregory Barnes’ Second Year curricular film, “The Touch of the Master’s Hand” won the Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction. This marks the third year in a row that a Grad Film student has been awarded a Short Film Jury Award at Sundance for a 2nd Year curricular film; the 2019 Short Film Jury Award for International Fiction went to recent alum Raed Alsemari for “Dunya’s Day”, and the 2020 Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction went to recent alum Terrance Daye for “-Ship: A Visual Poem”.
“Son of Monarchs”
Alexis Gambis’s Son of Monarchs, produced by fellow alum Maria Altamirano, was awarded the Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Vice President Doran Weber spoke on the decision: “All this year’s winning projects portray underrepresented figures in conflict with their environment who turn to science in one form or another. Gambis’s beautiful, poetic film depicts an immigrant scientist’s effort to understand nature and his own family past as he crosses boundaries of time, nationality and species.”
Find a full list of Sundance winners here.