02/02/2026 - The final edition of the US festival to be held at Park City has crowned a strong crop of European-led winners, from a Kosovar family drama to a Montenegrin highlands-set documentary

It’s a wrap for the 2026 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, which has been running for the last time in Park City and Salt Lake City from 22 January-1 February. The feature awards were unveiled on 30 January at The Ray Theatre in Park City, with festival director Eugene Hernandez saluting a line-up that audiences “will remember for a long time”.

While the headline-grabbing US prizes went to Beth de Araújo’s US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner Josephine, and Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman’s US Documentary champion Nuisance Bear (co-produced with Canada), the international competitions delivered a markedly European-leaning palmarès — one that underscored Sundance’s continued role as a high-visibility launchpad for co-productions straddling Europe and the wider world.

The World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Visar Morina’s Shame and Money [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Visar Morina
film profile], a German-Kosovar-Slovenian-Albanian-Macedonian-Belgian co-production tracking a Kosovar family uprooted from a village and thrown into the churn of urban hyper-capitalism. Notably, the jury praised Morina’s “powerful and unique portrayal of human dignity” and emphasised the filmmaker’s “deep empathy” for his characters.

Europe’s presence extended well beyond that top honour. The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary went to To Hold a Mountain [+see also:
film review
interview: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glom…
film profile], directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić (Serbia/France/Montenegro/Slovenia/Croatia) and set in the Montenegrin highlands. Centred on a shepherd mother and daughter resisting the conversion of their ancestral mountain into a NATO military training ground, the film was singled out for making “the personal political” — a framing that, unsurprisingly, resonates strongly within today’s European documentary landscape, where land, sovereignty and memory remain intensely contested subjects.

Among the World Cinema Dramatic craft prizes, the Directing Award went to Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius for How to Divorce During the War [+see also:
film review
interview: Andrius Blaževičius
film profile] (Lithuania/Luxembourg/Ireland/Czech Republic). Set in Vilnius in 2022, the darkly comic drama follows a woman pursuing a divorce just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine recalibrates the emotional temperature of daily life; the jury commended the director’s “subtle observation” and the film’s commitment to humanity without smoothing out contradiction.

The World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award further boosted Europe’s medal count, going to Myrsini Aristidou’s Hold Onto Me [+see also:
film review
interview: Myrsini Aristidou
film profile] (Cyprus/Denmark/Greece), about an 11-year-old attempting to reconnect with her estranged father in a run-down shipyard. In the World Cinema Documentary audience vote, the laurels went to One in a Million, a UK-backed, decade-spanning portrait of a girl’s journey from Syria to Germany and beyond, helmed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes.

In the secondary juried honours, the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance was handed to Felipe Bustos Sierra’s Everybody to Kenmure Street [+see also:
film review
film profile] (UK), which revisits the spontaneous mobilisation of residents in Glasgow to halt a deportation raid. Another UK-anchored production, Birds of War (UK/Syria/Lebanon), won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact, with the jury highlighting the film’s emotional immediacy and its reframing of journalism through intimacy and vulnerability.

In the festival’s NEXT section, the NEXT Innovator Award went to Louis Paxton’s The Incomer (UK), a comic fable on a remote Scottish isle blending folklore and formal play; meanwhile, the NEXT Audience Award was picked up by Adam and Zack Khalil’s Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (USA/Denmark), again pointing to how European partners are embedded across Sundance’s supposedly “American” innovation pipeline.

The awards arrived as Sundance continues to frame 2026 as a turning-point edition — and not only because of the quality and diversity of the work in competition. The festival has confirmed that from 2027, it will relocate to Boulder, Colorado, making 2026 the culmination of the yearly gathering in Park City and Salt Lake City.

Here is the full list of award winners:

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Shame and Money [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Visar Morina
film profile] – Visar Morina (Germany/Kosovo/Slovenia/Albania/North Macedonia/Belgium)

Audience Award Presented by United Airlines
Hold Onto Me [+see also:
film review
interview: Myrsini Aristidou
film profile] – Myrsini Aristidou (Cyprus/Denmark/Greece)

Directing Award
Andrius Blaževičius – How to Divorce During the War [+see also:
film review
interview: Andrius Blaževičius
film profile] (Lithuania/Luxembourg/Ireland/Czech Republic)

Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
Filipiñana [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Rafael Manuel (Singapore/UK/Philippines/France/Netherlands)

Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble
Lady [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Olive Nwosu (UK/Nigeria)

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize
To Hold a Mountain [+see also:
film review
interview: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glom…
film profile] – Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić (Serbia/France/Montenegro/Slovenia/Croatia)

Audience Award Presented by United Airlines
One in a Million – Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes (UK)

Directing Award
Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes – One in a Million

Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact
Birds of War – Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak (UK/Syria/Lebanon)

Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance
Everybody to Kenmure Street [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Felipe Bustos Sierra (UK)

US Cinema Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Josephine – Beth de Araújo (USA)

Audience Award Presented by Acura
Josephine – Beth de Araújo

Directing Award
Josef Kubota Wladyka – Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! (USA)

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
Liz Sargent – Take Me Home (USA)

Special Jury Award for Debut Feature
Bedford Park – Stephanie Ahn (USA)

Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
The Friend’s House Is Here – Hossein Keshavarz, Maryam Ataei (USA/Iran)

US Cinema Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize
Nuisance Bear – Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman (USA/Canada)

Audience Award Presented by Acura
American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez – David Alvarado (USA)

Directing Award
JM Harper – Soul Patrol (USA)

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Matt Hixon – Barbara Forever (USA)

Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence
Who Killed Alex Odeh? – Jason Osder, William Lafi Youmans (USA)

Special Jury Award for Impact for Change
The Lake – Abby Ellis (USA)

NEXT

NEXT Innovator Award Presented by Adobe
The Incomer – Louis Paxton (UK)

NEXT Special Jury Award Presented by Adobe
TheyDream – William David Caballero (USA)

Audience Award: NEXT Presented by Adobe
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] – Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil (USA/Denmark)

NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression
TheyDream - William David Caballero

Short films

Short Film Grand Jury Prize
The Baddest Speechwriter of All – Ben Proudfoot, Stephen Curry (USA)

Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction
Crisis Actor – Lily Platt (USA)

Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
Jazz Infernal – Will Niava (Canada)

Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction
The Boys and the Bees – Arielle C Knight (USA)

Short Film Jury Award: Animation
Living with a Visionary – Stephen P Neary (USA)

Short Film Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
Paper Trail – Don Hertzfeldt (USA)

Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting
Noah Roja, Filippo Carrozza – The Liars (Argentina)

Other awards

Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize
In the Blink of an Eye – Andrew Stanton (USA)

Sundance Institute Producers Award for Nonfiction Presented by Amazon MGM Studios
Who Killed Alex Odeh? – Jason Osder, William Lafi Youmans

Sundance Institute Producers Award for Fiction Presented by Amazon MGM Studios
Take Me Home – Liz Sargent

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Nonfiction
Flavia de Souza

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Fiction
Mollie Goldstein

Sundance Institute | NHK Award
Leo Aguirre – Verano (USA)