Published : Feb. 1, 2016 - 14:07
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Nate Parker continued his victory lap around the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night when “The Birth of a Nation” took both the U.S. drama grand jury prize and the Audience Award. The historical slave rebellion drama had already broken the acquisition record when Fox Searchlight scooped it up for a cool $17.5 million, and quickly became the must-see of the festival, commanding reported $100 offers for tickets.
Agnieszka Smoczynska, director of the Polish film “The Lure,” celebrates on the stage after her film won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday in Park City, Utah. (AP-Yonhap)
“I’ve poured everything that I am into making it,” Parker said following the film’s premiere on Monday. “I made this film for one reason, with hope of creating change agents, that people could watch this film and be affected.”
Other big winners of the evening included the Anthony Weiner documentary “Weiner,” which took home the U.S. documentary grand jury prize, and “Jim: The James Foley Story,” which won the U.S. documentary audience award.
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan also won the U.S. dramatic directing award for their wildly divisive film “Swiss Army Man” about a man stranded on an island (Paul Dano) who discovers a flatulent corpse (Daniel Radcliffe).