by Kyna Morgan
Sundance announced the winners of the Short Film Jury Awards on January 22. With over 8,000 shorts submitted, 65 shorts were chosen to screen and only 14 were candidates in competition. Awards were given out in seven categories: Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Fiction, International Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation, Acting and the Special Jury. With such a good showing of women filmmakers in the Shorts Program this year (with films in competition), it's disappointing to see the lack of women recipients of Jury Awards.
Finnish filmmaker Jenni Toivoniemi won the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction for her film The Date which she both wrote and directed (the only woman filmmaker awarded). She's a cofounder of the production company Tuffi Films in Helsinki, Finland. The awards were very American, with four of the total seven awards being handed out to films from the U.S.A.; the other countries represented were Finland (for Toivoniemi), Poland, and Ireland. (See the entire list of Short Film Jury Award winners here.)
Sundance announced the winners of the Short Film Jury Awards on January 22. With over 8,000 shorts submitted, 65 shorts were chosen to screen and only 14 were candidates in competition. Awards were given out in seven categories: Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Fiction, International Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation, Acting and the Special Jury. With such a good showing of women filmmakers in the Shorts Program this year (with films in competition), it's disappointing to see the lack of women recipients of Jury Awards.
Finnish filmmaker Jenni Toivoniemi won the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction for her film The Date which she both wrote and directed (the only woman filmmaker awarded). She's a cofounder of the production company Tuffi Films in Helsinki, Finland. The awards were very American, with four of the total seven awards being handed out to films from the U.S.A.; the other countries represented were Finland (for Toivoniemi), Poland, and Ireland. (See the entire list of Short Film Jury Award winners here.)
The Sundance Film Festival will be live streaming its awards ceremony tonight from Park City, Utah. Be sure to tune in online at 7pm mountain time / 9pm eastern to watch!