From AwardAnnals
Each of these films has been nominated for a Sundance Film Festival —Dramatic. They are ranked by honors received.
You may also enjoy these honor rolls:
Blood Simple
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
The debut film of director Joel Coen and his brother-producer Ethan Coen, 1983’s
Blood Simple is grisly comic noir that marries the feverish toughness of pulp thrillers with the ghoulishness of even pulpier horror. (Imagine the novels of Jim Thompson somehow fused with the comic tabloid
Weird Tales, and you get the idea.) The story concerns a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a seedy private detective (M. Emmett Walsh) to follow his cheating wife (Frances McDormand in her first film appearance), and then kill her and her lover (John Getz). The…
Maria Full of Grace
Joshua Marston
(Drama) Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino), a bright, spirited 17-year old, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia. Desperate to leave her job stripping thorns from flowers in a rose plantation, Maria accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of heroin—which she must swallow—to the United States. The ruthless world of international drug trafficking proves to be more than Maria bargained for as she becomes ultimately entangled with both drug cartels and immigration officials. The dramatic thriller builds toward a conclusion so powerful and revealing it could only be based on a thousand true stories.
Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
Lee Daniels
With sheer audacity and utter authenticity, director Lee Daniels tackles Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire and creates an unforgettable film that sets a new standard for cinema of its kind.
Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a high-school girl with nothing working in her favor. She is pregnant with her father’s child—for the second time. She can’t read or write, and her schoolmates tease her for being fat. Her home life is a horror, ruled by a mother (Mo’Nique) who keeps her imprisoned both emotionally and physically. Precious’s instincts tell her one thing: if she’s ever going to break from the chains of ignorance, she will have to dig deeply into her own resources.
Don’t be misled—
Push is not a film wallowing in the stillness of depression; instead, it vibrates with the kind of energy derived only from anger and hope. The entire cast are amazing; they carry out a firestorm of raw emotion. Daniels has drawn from them inimitable performances that will rivet you to your seat and leave you too shocked to breathe. If you passed Precious on the street, you…
Frozen River
Courtney Hunt
Two days before Christmas in rural upstate New York, Ray Eddy’s husband has left her in an impossible situation—not only is he gone, but he has gambled away all of the family’s meager savings. Ray’s single wage at the Yankee One Dollar Store can’t make the house payment, and the situation forces Ray to feed her two sons popcorn and Tang every day. When Ray strikes out to search for her husband, she encounters Lila Littlewolf, a tough, street-smart Mohawk woman who is dealing with her own struggle to make ends meet. But Lila has found a way to do it—smuggling illegal immigrants into the States. The tribal elders disapprove and attempt to stop Lila by forbidding anyone to sell her a car. Ray has a car, and although the two women don’t trust each other, they team up and share Ray’s Dodge Spirit to make a run across the frozen St. Lawrence River.
Courtney Hunt’s remarkable and deeply emotional first feature is a realistic look at the world of human smuggling and the difficult choices facing poor, single mothers. A wonderfully directed film full of atmosphere, heart, and…
Padre Nuestro
Christopher Zalla
Fleeing a pack of henchman on the Mexican side of the border, Juan hops a truck transporting illegals from Mexico to New York City. En route he befriends Pedro, an innocent from central Mexico who is headed to New York to seek his rich restaurateur father, Diego. Pedro shows Juan a sealed letter that his mother, now dead, has given him—an introduction to the father he never knew. When the truck pulls into New York City, Pedro wakes to find both his belongings and his new friend gone without a trace. He is cast onto the street and stumbles around, lost in an unknown city. Juan, meanwhile, shows up at Diego's door with the letter, claiming to be his long-lost son, Pedro.
Quinceañera
Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
Quinceañera is a look at what happens when teenage sexuality, age-old rituals, and real estate prices collide. It is a reinvention of Kitchen Sink drama, fueled by the racial, class, and sexual tensions of a Latino neighborhood in transition.
Magdalena (Emily Rios) is the daughter of a Mexican-American family who runs a storefront church in Echo Park, Los Angeles. With her fifteenth-birthday approaching, all she can think about is her boyfriend, her Quinceañera dress, and the Hummer Limo she hopes will carry her on her special day. But a few months before the celebration, Magdalena falls pregnant. As the elaborate preparations for her Quinceañera proceed, it is only a matter of time before her religious father finds out and rejects her.
Forced out of her home, Magdalena moves in with great-great uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez), an old man who makes his living selling champurrado (a Mexican hot drink) in the street. Already living with him is Carlos (Jesse Garcia), Magdalena’s cousin, a tough cholo who was thrown out by his parents. Carlos does not disguise his disapproval of Magdalena’s…
Forty Shades of Blue
Ira Sachs
“It’s just a moment in time that happened in Memphis that was pure magic…and I’m just so thankful that I was a part of it.” So says legendary record producer Alan James (Academy Award Nominee Rip Torn) of his heyday as a hitmaker in the city of soul. Those days have faded into the past, but the larger-than-life songsmith still continues to reap the benefits, including his Russian trophy-girlfriend, Laura (Independent Spirit Award Nominee Dina Korzun), a beautiful young woman he brought home with him from a trip to Moscow. Laura’s life in America is better than anything she’s ever known, but Alan’s carousing lifestyle tests her patience. When Michael (Darren Burrows, tv’s Northern Exposure) the handsome, estranged son of one of Alan’s previous marriages arrives on the scene, the delicate balance of this intriguing relationship changes forever.
Primer
Shane Carruth
Primer won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and has drawn repeat viewers eager to crack writer-director-star Shane Carruth’s puzzler of a time-travel drama. Carruth, an engineer by training, plays inventor Aaron, whose entrepreneurial partnership with fellow brainiac Abe (David Sullivan) unexpectedly results in a process for traveling back several hours in time. The men initially use these rewind sessions to succeed in the stock market. But a dark consequence of their daily journeys eventually complicates matters. If this sounds like…
American Splendor
Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
One of the most acclaimed films of 2003,
American Splendor is also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction, and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar—scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. hospital—is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti…
Personal Velocity
Rebecca Miller
Personal Velocity is actually three short digital films, a trio of superb character portraits: Delia (Kyra Sedgwick,
Something to Talk About,
Singles), a former bad girl who musters the will to leave her abusive husband; Greta (Parker Posey,
Party Girl,
Best in Show), a book editor who finds that success in her career leaves her dissatisfied with her unambitious husband; and Paula (Fairuza Balk,
The Craft,
Gas Food Lodging), a young woman whose narrow escape from a car accident makes her question her life. With…
