More on film festival, Page E7.A dark gangster comedy, a handicapped scientist's view of the universe and a mother and daughter reunited after 20 years were the disparate subjects of the three low-budget, independent films that won top prizes at the Sundance Film Festival Saturday night.
The dramatic film "In the Soup" and two documentaries, "A Brief History of Time" and "Finding Christa," were named as grand-prize winners in their respective categories.The independent competition awards were announced during a ceremony held in Z Place, a Park City nightspot. Spalding Gray, whose monologue-movie "Monster in a Box" was a premiere film Saturday, acted as emcee.
"In the Soup" is a goofy, black-and-white character study of a petty criminal and the would-be screenwriter he cons and then befriends. Written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell, the film stars veteran character actor Seymour Cassel, who also received an award, a "special jury prize for outstanding performance."
On the documentary side, the grand prize was, for the third consecutive year, split between two films.
"A Brief History of Time" examines the life and work of world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and was directed by prominent documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. Morris' most famous film is "The Thin Blue Line," and his first dramatic film, an adaptation of Tony Hillerman's novel "The Dark Wind" (executive-produced by Robert Redford) opens in theaters next month.
The other documentary winner, "Finding Christa," is a small, intimate, very personal look at two women, artist/filmmaker Camille Billops and her daughter, Christa Victoria, whom Billops gave up for adoption when Christa was 4. It was co-written, produced and directed by Billops and James Hatch.
The three grand-prize winners reflect a more populist decision on the part of the dramatic and documentary juries this year. The festival seemed to be headed in a more avant-garde direction with two of last year's grand-prize winners - the controversial "Poison," which became even more controversial after it left the festival, and "Paris Is Burning," both gay films. And in 1990, one documentary winner, "Water and Power," was also considered a very narrow, esoteric choice. All three films were marked by large numbers of walkouts during their festival screenings.
But "In the Soup," "A Brief History of Time" and "Finding Christa" seemed to be equally embraced by audiences and critics, as well as the juries.
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Neal Jimenez for "The Waterdance," a semiautobiographical drama about a writer who becomes a paraplegic after an accident. "The Waterdance" also won the dramatic Audience Award, voted by moviegoers during the run of festival films.
The documentary Audience Award went to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's "Brother's Keeper," which attempts to unravel a complex murder mystery involving four middle-aged brothers who lived all their lives in a two-room shack with no modern conveniences.
The Cinematography Awards went to Trinh T. Minh-ha and Kathleen Beeler for "Shoot for the Contents," a poetic documentary exploring Chinese village life, and to Ellen Kuras for the dramatic "Swoon," based on the Leopold and Loeb murder case.
The Filmmakers Trophy, voted by the independent filmmakers whose works are in competition, went to documentary grand-prize winner "A Brief History of Time" and the dramatic "Zebrahead," written and directed by Anthony Drazan, an exploration of race relations.
In addition to the special jury prize for Seymour Cassel's performance in "In the Soup," which was the only acting award of the evening, two additional prizes were awarded - to films playing out of competition.
The dramatic jury gave a "special jury prize for artistic excellence" to Christopher Munch for his "The Hours and Times," a speculation about a weekend in 1963 when John Lennon and Beatles manager Brian Epstein spent a weekend in Barcelona. The film was listed with "dramatic competition" films but did not qualify to be in competition because its length was 10 minutes under the required 70 minutes.
And the documentary jury gave a "special mention" to "My Crasy Life," a documentary look at Samoan street gangs in Los Angeles, which played in the festival in the "special screenings" section.
Dramatic jury members were Newsweek magazine film critic David Ansen, filmmaker Beth B ("Salvation!"), actor/director Bill Duke ("A Rage in Harlem") and screenwriter Callie Khouri ("Thelma & Louise").
Documentary jury members were filmmakers Stephanie Black ("H-2 Worker"), William Greaves ("Symbiopsychotaxiplasm"), Isaac Julien ("The Passion of Remembrance") and Berenice Reynaud, New York correspondent for the French publications Cahiers du Cinema and Lib-er-a-tion.