email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

SUNDANCE 2025 Awards

Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Cactus Pears scoops the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance

by 

- Prominent European victors at this year’s edition included Georgi M Unkovski’s drama DJ Ahmet, and documentaries helmed by David Borenstein, and duo Amber Fares and Rachel Leah Jones

Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Cactus Pears scoops the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
Cactus Pears by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade

It’s a wrap for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. This year, the Utah-based gathering unspooled from 23 January-2 February. Four main competitions traditionally form the core of the festival, marking a separation between documentaries and fiction films, as well as US and international titles. On 31 January, the juried and audience awards were presented at a ceremony held at The Ray Theatre in Park City.

Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Cactus Pears [+see also:
film review
interview: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
film profile
]
snagged the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. A co-production between India, the UK and Canada, the pic follows Anand, a thirty-something city dweller compelled to spend a ten-day mourning period for his father in the rugged countryside of Western India, where he tenderly bonds with a local farmer struggling to stay unmarried. As the mourning ends, forcing him to return, Anand must decide the fate of this relationship born under duress. The jury billed it as “the great modern love story”.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)
lessismore2025internal

In the same category, an Eastern European production, Georgi M Unkovski’s DJ Ahmet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Georgi M Unkovski
film profile
]
(North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Serbia/Croatia), scooped both the Audience Award and the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. The story follows the titular 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, who finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community and his first experience with love – a girl already promised to someone else. The jury handing out the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision stated: “World cinema gives us access to a depth of emotion, a diversity of characters and meaningful journeys that are not limited by borders. Our guiding principle was hope and light, and the films in this section have a strong sense of courage and vulnerability. We found all this and more in this film’s progressive characters and distinct tone.”

Another feature with European involvement, The Things You Kill [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alireza Khatami
film profile
]
by Alireza Khatami (Turkey/France/Poland/Canada), snagged the strand’s gong for Best Directing. “We could not stop talking about this film. It made us curious and deeply invested in the characters and their rich journey. This effortless, streamlined movie does not sacrifice its depth of subject even while dealing with toxic masculinity and the everyday darkness of the soul. This director was masterful in their precision, they were profound yet restrained, and their robust vision pushes us to want more, think more and do more to be better humans,” the jurors opined.

Next, the World Cinema Documentary Competition saw three more productions with European involvement rewarded. The sidebar’s Grand Jury Prize went to Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks (Iran/Germany/USA/Netherlands/Qatar/Chile/Canada), labelled by the jurors as “a beautiful and nuanced portrait that shows us a fearless eccentric who confronts male-dominated society when she runs for office in a remote Iranian village”. Finally, the Special Jury Award and the Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression were handed to Mr. Nobody Against Putin [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
by David Borenstein (Denmark/Czech Republic), and Coexistence, My Ass! [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Amber Fares and Rachel Leah Jones (USA/France), respectively.

Here is the list of this year’s award winners (read more about the winners of the short-film awards here):

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Cactus Pears [+see also:
film review
interview: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade
film profile
]
- Rohan Parashuram Kanawade (India/UK/Canada)

Audience Award
DJ Ahmet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Georgi M Unkovski
film profile
]
- Georgi M Unkovski (North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Serbia/Croatia)

Directing Award
Alireza Khatami - The Things You Kill [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alireza Khatami
film profile
]
(Turkey/France/Poland/Canada)

Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
DJ Ahmet - Georgi M Unkovski

Special Jury Award for Writing
Chloé Robichaud - Two Women (Canada)

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Cutting Through Rocks - Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni (Iran/Germany/USA/Netherlands/Qatar/Chile/Canada)

Audience Award
Prime Minister - Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz (USA)

Directing Award
Mstyslav Chernov - 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(USA)

Documentary Special Jury Award
Mr. Nobody Against Putin [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- David Borenstein (Denmark/Czech Republic)

Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression
Coexistence, My Ass! [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Amber Fares, Rachel Leah Jones (USA/France)

US Cinema Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Atropia - Hailey Gates (USA)

Audience Award
Twinless - James Sweeney (USA)

Directing Award
Rashad Frett - Ricky (USA)

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
Eva Victor - Sorry, Baby (USA)

Special Jury Award for Acting
Dylan O’Brien - Twinless (USA)

Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
Plainclothes - Carmen Emmi (USA)

US Cinema Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Seeds - Brittany Shyne (USA)

Directing Award
Geeta Gandbhir - The Perfect Neighbor (USA)

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Parker Laramie - André Is an Idiot (USA)

Documentary Special Jury Award for Archival Storytelling
Selena y Los Dinos - Isabel Castro (USA)

Special Jury Award
Life After - Reid Davenport (USA)

NEXT

NEXT Innovator Award Presented by Adobe
Zodiac Killer Project [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
- Charlie Shackleton (USA/UK)

Audience Award: NEXT
East of Wall - Kate Beecroft (USA)

NEXT Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) - Joel Alfonso Vargas (USA)

Shorts

Short Film Grand Jury Prize
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing - Theo Panagopoulos (UK)

Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction
Trokas Duras - Jazmin Garcia (USA)

Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites - Chheangkea (Cambodia/France)

Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction
We Were the Scenery - Christopher Radcliff (USA)

Short Film Jury Award: Animation
Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado - Natalia León (France)

Short Film Special Jury Award for Animation Directing
May Kindred-Boothby - The Eating of an Orange (UK)

The Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing
Loren Waters - Tiger (USA)

Other awards

Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize
Sally – Cristina Costantini (USA)

Sundance Institute | Amazon MGM Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction
Seeds - Danielle Varga (USA)

Sundance Institute | Amazon MGM Studios Producers Award for Fiction
The Wedding Banquet - Joe Pirro (USA)

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Nonfiction
Vivien Hillgrove

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Fiction
Brian A Kates

Sundance Institute | NHK Award
Yakult Ajumma - Lloyd Lee Choi - (South Korea/Canada/USA)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy