Sundance Gives Top Honor to ‘Atropia,' a Comedy About Playing War

New York Times

31-01-2025

The comedy 'Atropia,' starring Alia Shawkat as an Iraqi-American actress cast in the role of an insurgent at a military role-playing facility, won the top prize in the Sundance Film Festival's U.S. dramatic competition on Friday.
'This timely and timeless first feature was both hilarious and damning in its portrayal of the theater of war,' read a citation from the dramatic-competition jury, which was made up of the directors Reinaldo Marcus Green and Celine Song and the actor Arian Moayed.
Like many of the independent films that premiered at this muted edition of Sundance, 'Atropia,' written and directed by Hailey Gates, has not yet sold to a distributor. Neither has the comedy 'Twinless,' about a man struggling to process the loss of his identical twin, though the film won the festival's U.S. dramatic-competition audience award and a special jury award for acting for its star Dylan O'Brien.
At the time of the festival's awards ceremony, only two movies had managed big sales: the body-horror film 'Together,' with Alison Brie and Dave Franco, and the elegiac period drama 'Train Dreams,' starring Joel Edgerton. Both movies played out of competition.
Here are the rest of the top awards. For a complete list of winners, including short films and special jury prizes, go to sundance.org.
Grand Jury Prizes
U.S. Dramatic Competition: "Atropia'
U.S. Documentary Competition: 'Seeds'
World Cinema Dramatic Competition: 'Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)'
World Cinema Documentary Competition: 'Cutting Through Rocks'
Next Innovator Award: 'Zodiac Killer Project'
Directing, U.S. Dramatic: Rashad Frett, 'Ricky'
Directing, U.S. Documentary: Geeta Gandbhir, 'The Perfect Neighbor'
Directing, World Cinema Dramatic: Alireza Khatami, 'The Things You Kill'
Directing, World Cinema Documentary: Mstyslav Chernov, '2000 Meters to Andriivka'
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic: Eva Victor, 'Sorry, Baby'
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award, U.S. Documentary: Parker Laramie, 'André Is an Idiot'
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting: Dylan O'Brien, 'Twinless'
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast: 'Plainclothes'
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Archival Storytelling: 'Selena y Los Dinos'
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: 'Life After'
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Georgi M. Unkovski, 'DJ Ahmet'
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Writing: 'Two Women'
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin'
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression: 'Coexistence, My Ass!'
NEXT Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast: 'Mad Bills to Pay'
Audience Awards
U.S. Dramatic Competition: 'Twinless'
U.S. Documentary Competition: 'André Is an Idiot'
World Cinema Dramatic Competition: 'DJ Ahmet'
World Cinema Documentary Competition: 'Prime Minister'
Next: 'East of Wall'