‘A Thousand And One’ & ‘The Persian Version’ Top 2023 Sundance Film Festival Awards

After a two-year virtual in-person hiatus, the Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City and that meant an old-fashioned in-person awards ceremony as well. Well, sorta. The post-ceremony party was absent this year (as well as its traditional host), but there was undoubtedly a lot of joy in the room as the honors were handed out. In the prestigious U.S. Dramatic Competition, the top prize went to A.V. Rockwell’s “A Thousand and One.” “The Persian Version” took two prizes including the Audience Award, U.S. Dramatic, and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Maryam Keshavarz, the film’s director and screenwriter.

READ MORE: Catch up on every film review from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

“A Thousand and One” will be released by Focus Features on March 31.

“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” was awarded the U.S. Documentary award, and “The Eternal Memory,” just acquired by MTV Documentary Films, took the World Cinema Documentary honor. The World Cinema Grand Jury prize went to “Scrapper while the Festival Favorite Award went to “Radical.”

Notably, “Mutt” star Lio Mehiel took the acting award for U.S. Dramatic over some major competition, and the cast of “Theater Camp,” acquired by Searchlight Pictures, earned an Ensemble award.

The full list of 2023 winners are as follows:

Amazon Studios Fiction Award – Kara Durrett, “The Starling Girl”
Amazon Studios Nonfiction Award – Jess Devaney, “It’s Only Life After All”
Sundance/NHK Award – Olive Nwosu, “Lady”
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize – “The Pod Generation”
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction – Mary Manhardt
Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction – Troy Takaki
Sundance Institute | Stars Collective Imagination Awards – Tamara Shogaolu, “40 Acres”
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Creative Vision – “Fantastic Machine”
World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Verite Filmmaking – “Against The Tide”
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary – Anna Hints, “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood”
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – “The Eternal Memory”
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Creative Vision – Sofia Alaoui, “Animalia”
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Cinematography – Lílis Soares, “Mama Wata”
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Best Performance – Rosa Marchant, “When It Melts”
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic – Marija Kavtaradze, “Slow”
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – “Scrapper”
Short Film Special Jury Award: Directing, International – Valeria Hofmann, “AliEN0089”
Short Film Special Jury Award: Directing, US – Jarreau Carrillo, “The Vacation”
Short Film Jury Award: Animation – “The Flying Sailor”
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction – “Will You Look At Me”
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction – “The Kidnapping of the Bride”
Short Film Jury Award: US Fiction – “Rest Stop”
Short Film Grand Jury Prize – “When You Left Me On That Boulevard”
NEXT Innovator Award – D. Smith, “Kokomo City”
Audience Award: NEXT – “Kokomo City”
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary – “20 Days in Mariupol”
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic – “Shayda”
Audience Award: US Documentary – “Beyond Utopia”
Audience Award: US Dramatic – “The Persian Version”
Festival Favorite Award – “Radical”
US Documentary Special Jury Award: Clarity of Vision – “The Stroll”
US Documentary Special Jury Award: Freedom of Expression – “Bad Press”
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: US Documentary – Daniela I. Quiroz, “Going Varsity in Mariachi”
Directing Award: US Documentary – Luke Lorentzen, “A Still Small Voice”
US Grand Jury Prize: Documentary – “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”
US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble – “Theater Camp”
US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Creative Vision – “Magazine Dreams”
US Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting – Lio Mehiel, “Mutt”
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: US Dramatic – Maryam Keshavarz, “The Persian Version”
Directing Award: US Dramatic – Sing J. Lee, “The Accidental Getaway Driver”
US Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – “A Thousand and One”