Patton Oswalt, who got a lot of kudos at Sundance this year for his performance in Big Fan, gave us a little love in return. In his blog today, he writes about his final few days at Sundance, including his meeting with us and the fact that he turned the tables and interviewed our web producer, Darren Ewing. He even includes the (blurry) picture I shot of them together with his camera.

It used to be said that Sundance brings the snow.

If the slopes of Park City were a little sparse at Christmas, then by mid-January - just in time for the film festival - the flakes would start falling.

This year, though, the streets of Park City were positively balmy. Temperatures in the 30s, sunshine and blue skies.

So, of course, on the day all of us are leaving Park City, the snow is falling. Just one more wild card in a festival loaded with unpredictability.

The festival will reconvene on Jan. 21, 2010. Until then, see you at the movies.

Here are the winners of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival:

Grand Jury Prize
U.S. Dramatic: “Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire,” directed by Lee Daniels
U.S. Documentary: “We Live in Public,” directed by Ondi Timoner
World Dramatic: “The Maid (La Nana),” directed by Sebastián Silva (Chile)
World Documentary: “Rough Aunties,” directed by Kim Longinotto (United Kingdom)

Audience Award
U.S. Dramatic: “Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire,” directed by Lee Daniels
U.S. Documentary: “The Cove,” directed by Louie Psihoyos
World Dramatic: “An Education,” directed by Lone Scherfig (United Kingdom)
World Documentary: “Afghan Star,” directed by Havana Marking (Afghanistan/UK)

Directing Award
U.S. Dramatic: Cary Joji Fukunaga, “Sin Nombre”
U.S. Documentary: Natalia Almada, “El General”
World Dramatic: Oliver Hirschbiegel, “Five Minutes to Heaven” (UK/Ireland)
World Documentary: Havana Marking, “Afghan Star” (Afghanistan/UK)

Excellence in Cinematography
U.S. Dramatic: Adriano Goldman, “Sin Nombre”
U.S. Documentary: Bob Richman, “The September Issue”
World Dramatic: John De Borman, “An Education” (United Kingdom)
World Documentary: John Maringouin, “Big River Man” (U.S.A./UK)

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
U.S. Dramatic: Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi, “Paper Heart”

World Cinema Screenwriting Award
World Dramatic: Guy Hibbert, “Five Minutes of Heaven” (UK/Ireland)

Documentary Editing Award
U.S. Documentary: Karen Schmeer, “Sergio”
World Documentary: Janus Billeskov Jansen and Thomas Papapetros, “Burma VJ” (Denmark)

Special Jury Prizes
U.S. Dramatic, for Spirit of Independence: “Humpday,” directed by Lynn Shelton
U.S. Dramatic, for acting: Mo'Nique, “Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire”
U.S. Documentary: “Good Hair,” directed by Jeff Stilson, written by Chris Rock, Jeff Stilson, Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar
World Dramatic, for originality: “Louise-Michel,” directed by Benoit Delépine and Gustave de Kervern (France)
World Dramatic, for acting: Catalina Saavedra, “The Maid (La Nana)” (Chile)
World Documentary: “Tibet in Song,” directed by Ngawang Choephel (Tibet)

A smattering of memorable quotes from the Sundance Film Festival's Awards Night ceremony:

"I'm really humbled to stand here. And I'm standing here representing all people in Tibet whose voices are being silenced."

- Ngawang Choephel, director of "Tibet in Song," which won a Special Jury Prize for World Documentary.

"I totally agree with the jury. She gave an astonishing performance."

- Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva, director of "The Maid (La Nana)," accepting a Special Jury Prize for his leading lady, Catalina Saavedra.

"Yo, yo, yo, where the brown people at?"

- Actor Benjamin Bratt, before presenting an award.

"These awards are exercises in democracy, and it's a good time for democracy right now."

- Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, presenting the Audience Awards for World Cinema.

"If some of you don't go home with a big rusty clock, remember that you are here, you were accepted at the 2009 Sundnace Film Festival, the year Barack Obama beame our president."

- Actress Virginia Madsen, one of the U.S. Dramatic jurors

"She put her all into the film. I was so glad to work with her. She was wonderful, and you guys were wonderful. Is that good?''

- "Push" star Gabourey Sidibe, accepting the Special Jury Prize for acting for her co-star Mo'Nique.

"This is a strange award to be given for this film, because there was about five pages written down.”

- "Paper Heart" director Nicholas Janesovec, accepting the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award with his star/co-writer Charlyne Yi.

Among the thank-yous he gave in his Awards Night speech - to his staff, the volunteers and the people of Park City - Sundnace Film Festival director Geoff Gilmore got quite passionate about the worrisome future of independent film.

"The future isn't clear, it really is uncertain," Gilmore said. "The independent arena will change, and it has to change in order to prosper. It has to change because there are too many good films here that people have to see. And we have to work out a way for that to happen."

Awards Night emcee Jane Lynch ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin") had a word of warning to the winners at tonight's show: “The award itself weighs about 17 pounds. As you're giving your speech, you might want to move it along.”

Sundance Institute executive director Kenneth Brecher got a rousing boo and a big cheer at Saturday's Awards Night introduction.

Here's what he said: "When we began this festival, George Bush was the president of the United States" - boo! - "and we ended with Barack Obama" - yay!

Brecher said he was thrilled that CNN showed the crowd on Park City's Lower Main, standing in the cold watching Obama's inaugural. As soon as the speech was over, Brecher said, he went down to the Sundance credentials office and had a special one printed: "Barack Obama - honorary head, Sundance Festival jury."

The Awards Night Ceremony for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival is about a half-hour away from starting, so the folks at the Racquet Club (like the bartenders, above) are getting everything ready to roll for a good party.



The decor follows the 25th anniversary theme that has carried the entire festival - with posters of classic and long-forgotten Sundance titles, and screens featuring trailers from past festivals.

When is a film not just a film? When it's "a starting point" for dialogue about a pressing global issue.

That's what the makers of "The Reckoning," a documentary about the International Criminal Court in The Hague, hope will come from their film, which had its last Sundance Film Festival screening Saturday morning at Park City's Holiday Village Cinemas. (Here's the Tribune's review, and here's the web site of the movie's outreach program.)

Former ICC prosecutor Christine Chung, champions the ICC's work in prosecuting genocide and other war crimes in Uganda, the Congo and Darfur - and notes that even though the ICC has yet to get a conviction (their first actual trial, against a Ugandan militia leader, starts on Monday), the fact that someone is trying can be enough to prompt others to act.

Chung points to Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a supposedly untouchable Congolese rebel leader who was arrested by Rwandan troops on Thursday, according to The New York Times.

In the Congo, Chung said, "These are people who have never seen justice, and they want it so badly."

Chung doesn't believe the ICC will ever try to prosecute U.S. leaders for their role in the torture and improper detention at Guantanamo, Cuba. For one thing, the United States is not a signatory to the ICC treaty, something strongly opposed by the Bush administration (and, the filmmakers believe, not high on President Barack Obama's radar). For another, any request to investigate would have to come through the UN Security Council - and the United States has a veto in that body.

More importantly, the ICC only acts when the local government fails to act. "We need to solve whatever problem with Bush and Cheney ourselves," Chung said. "We should be able to handle that as Americans."

Mo Perkins' drama "A Quiet Little Marriage," about a husband and wife with different ideas about having a baby, won the Grand Jury Award for narrative features at the 15th Slamdance Film Festival, it was announced Friday night.

The Grand Jury Prize for documentaries went to Zachary Levy's "Strongman," a profile of a muscleman approaching middle age.

Other award winners:

• Special Jury Mention for Best Performance: Larry Fessenden in "I Sell the Dead."
• Special Jury Mention for Documentaries: "Second Sight," directed by Alison McAlpine.
• Grand Jury Award for Best Animated Short: "Undone," directed by Hayley Morris.
• Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short: "Rare Chicken Rescue," directed by Randall Wood.
• Grand Jury Award for Best Experimental Short: "Funny Guy," directed by Frank R. Rinaldi.
• Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short: "Princess Margaret Blvd.," directed by Kazik Radwanski.
• Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Short: "Tony Zoreil," directed by Valentin Potier.
• Grand Jury Award for Best Music Video: "Don McCloskey 'Mister Novocaine,' " directed by Peter Rhoads.
• Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: "Punching the Clown," directed by Gregory Viens.
• Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: "Heart of Stone" (formerly "It's Hard to Be an Indian"), directed by Beth Toni Kruvant.
• Audience Award for Best Anarchy Film: "The Tides," directed by Eva Flodstrom.
• Spirit of Slamdance Award: "Zombie Girl," directed by Aaron Marshall, Erik Mauck, Justin Johnson; and "Vapid Lovelies," directed by Frank Feldman (tie).
• Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography: Richard Lopez, "I Sell the Dead."
• Dos Equis "Most Interesting Film" Award: "You Might As Well Live," directed by Simon Ellis.
• IndieRoad Award: "Punching the Clown," directed by Gregory Viens.
• Award for Best Screenplay: "Numbered" (Comedy/Thriller), by Neil McGowan.
• Award for Best Short Screenplay: "Crybaby" (Thriller), by Mark Seidel.

Max Mayer's romantic drama "Adam," starring Hugh Dancy as an engineer with Asperger's syndrome and Rose Byrne as the teacher who starts to fall for him, has received the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

The award - which comes with a $20,000 cash prize, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation - goes to a movie that depicts issues of science or technology, or has a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

The selection jury chose the movie “for its credible and moving portrayal of an engineer with Asperger's Syndrome whose passion for science helps him in his struggle to achieve a meaningful relationship.”

Chris Rock is violating the first rule of Sundance celebrity: It's the second Friday of the festival, and he's still here.

Writer-narrator-interviewer Rock and producer Nelson George (pictured) were on hand Friday for the last screening of "Good Hair," a documentary about African-American women's hair. And if you don't think that's a ripe subject for a documentary, you will by the movie's end - and you get a solid dose of Rock's comedy along the way.

Rock has been interested in the topic of black women and their hair - and how they spend thousands of dollars to make it straighter and more like white women's hair - for about 15 years. It was when one of his little daughters asked, "Daddy, why don't I have good hair?" that Rock decided finally to tackle the topic.

"If I had done it 15 years ago, I would have been much more judgmental," Rock said in a post-screening Q&A. "Now I just chalk it up to style."

Rock cajoled a lot of his friends and fellow performers - including Nia Long, Tracie Thoms, Eve, Meagan Good and Raven-Symone - to be interviewed. For an interview with rapper/actor Ice-T, a trade was involved; Rock agreed to appear in a documentary Ice-T is producing.

"When you're making a movie like this, and you're not paying anybody, you kind of take what you can get," Rock said.

Legend David Bowie showed up - late and unexpectedly - to the premiere of Moon tonight at the Eccles In Park City. Most of the press had dispersed from the red carpet, but our photographer Robert Hirschi was tipped off by staff that Bowie might show.

-- Kim McDaniel

This is the point during the Sundance Film Festival, after days of no sleep and too many movies, when the hallucinations set in. So I had to take a picture of this to prove to myself it was real.



Jokes aside, this was the attraction of a PETA protest on Park City's Main Street this morning. PETA is campaigning against the use of live animals - particularly apes and chimps - in movies.

As PETA protests go, though, these folks were nice. They even handed out bananas.

Darren Ewing and I have spent a full week up in Park City covering Sundance. We've tweeted, blogged and interviewed our tails off, (producing more than 20 videos!) and it's ALL for you, of course.

While we're catching up on sleep and sanity, you can check out anything you may have missed. We have interviewed Patton Oswalt, Robert Siegel, Kevin Spacey, Sam Rockwell, Rob Corddry, "Zombie Girl" Emily Hagins, Chris Rock, Kevin Corrigan, Carey Mulligan, Lone Scherfig, ChefDance's Bethenny Frankel, Nelson George, Sarah Jones, James C. Strouse, Shareeka Epps, Saffron Burrows, Mark Webber, Keke Palmer and Dallas Roberts.

We visited Keith Bryce's unique fashion exhibition, crashed two mini-reunion performances by The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Kreiger, risked our lives (and butts) sneaking onto the ski run again with the Slamdance Sled-Off crew, ran Main Street in 30 seconds, had Patton Oswalt turn around and interview US and checked out this year's New Frontiers (thanks Robert Hirschi).

It's been a hell of a week. Thanks to those of you who came along for the ride. If you missed anything, the whole playlist is right here or you can browse through below using the little icon to the right of the play button on the bottom bar. See you next year!

-- Kim McDaniel

The last two nights of big shows at Harry O's (427 Main St., Park City) have some of the biggest names all week. Tonight is Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley and Big Boi of OutKast, and Saturday night is Nas and N.E.R.D. with Pharrell Williams.

OK, OK, OK. We know the price to go see these guys is a little steep in these tough economic times. But it's the last night of the Sundance-related concerts at Harry O's, which truly is world-famous for its Sundance parties. Big Boi (seen above in a photo by Mark Seliger) is big with his partner Andre 3000 in "OutKast." Cee-Lo made us all "Crazy" a while ago. Nas is a 35-year-old rapper whose 1994 album "Illmatic" is considered one of the most influential rap albums of the early 1990s, and he still is a force to be reckoned with, as his latest album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. N.E.R.D. is a hip-hop band led by Pharrell Williams, the silky-voiced countertenor who last came to the area with Kanye West's tour in June. This time you can see him up close, as well as any other celebrities who stop by HarryO's before leaving the Beehive State.

Tickets are $100 for each show, and the entertainers don't like coming on stage until well after 11 p.m.

Today is the last day of the ASCAP Music Cafe, and Guggenheim Grotto and Lenka are the stars. You can read about Guggenheim Grotto earlier in this same blog.

Lenka has a hit on top-40 radio with "The Show," a pop ditty with some world music influences. She's from Australia, and is on her first headlining tour after coming to Utah late last year with the Hotel Cafe tour.

"I've always seen lots of pictures in magazines" about the Sundance Film Festival, Lenka said in an interview. "It will be cool to see what all the buzz is about."

While she probably won't wear the interesting headgear she is wearing above, she is prepared for the decidedly un-Outback-esque temperatures. "It will be a new level of cold in Utah," she said before arriving.

She performs at 4 p.m.

Actors and actresses, especially at Sundance, can be a little self-important. But Saffron Burrows, Mark Webber, Keke Palmer and Dallas Roberts - a good chunk of the cast of Shrink, also starring Kevin Spacey - were happy to share some tidbits with us yesterday at the Stella Lounge. Check out our best-of video with them:



-- Kim McDaniel

As laid back and cool as you think Kevin Spacey is - he's all that and more. The multiple Oscar winner sat down with us in the Stella Lounge today to talk about his Sundance film Shrink, mentoring young actors and filmmakers (on stage and screen), and gave a little shout out to the web geeks out there (and in here). Check it out:



-- Kim McDaniel

Kevin Rudolf might not be a household name yet, but you've heard the song above. He and Georgia-based rapper Yung Joc will be at Harry O's (427 Main St., Park City) tonight for only $50, a third of what it cost the night before for Common and Macy Gray (the latter whom I heard was a no-show).

Doors open at 8 p.m. Get your tickets at SmithsTix or YaYaTickets.com.

It was a Good Hair day for us yesterday (hee hee), as we got to sit down with several of the people involved in the documentary. Scroll a bit, or check the playlist to the right (-->) for our Chris Rock interview. Below, hear what actress Sarah Jones and producer Nelson George had to say.

They were just prepping for the Salt Lake screening, and George is a Sundance veteran, so there are some interesting comments about potential Mormon hair issues, acclimating to the altitude, and even the Utah Jazz. Check it out:



-- Kim McDaniel

Today's Academy Award nominations were loaded with honors for films that first received attention at the Sundance Film Festival.

One of the nominees for animated short - "This Way Up" (pictured above), a tale of two undertakers and a wayward casket, by British animators Adam Foulkes and Adam Smith - is playing in the Animation Spotlight program this week in Park City. (It screens tonight at 9 at the Egyptian Theatre, and Saturday at 3:15 p.m. at the Eccles Theatre.)

"We were actually on the plane when the announcement was made," said producer/co-writer Christopher O'Reilly, who with producer Charlotte Bavasso had just returned home to London from Park City. "We were literally the last people to know." (The directors, who go by the collective name Smith & Foulkes, missed the festival because they are busy finishing animation on a commercial to air during the Super Bowl on Feb. 1.)

Last year's Grand Jury Prize winner for dramatic films, "Frozen River," earned two big nominations: For Melissa Leo's gritty performance, and for Courtney Hunt's original screenplay.

Other Sundance '08 films to receive Oscar nominations:

• Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor," got a Best Actor nomination for Richard Jenkins.
• Last year's opening-night movie, "In Bruges," took an original screenplay nomination for Martin McDonagh.
• Last year's documentary Grand Jury Prize winner, the Katrina chronicle "Trouble the Water," got a nomination for Documentary Feature.
• "Man on Wire," which won the jury and audience awards in World Cinema Documentary at Sundance '08, was nominated for Documentary Feature.
• Ellen Kuras' "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," was also nominated for Documentary Feature.

The Wednesday night concert at Harry-O's featuring Chicago-bred rapper Common and Macy Gray got cut in half when a last minute cancellation by Gray put Common in the spotlight. Her loss. The club was jam packed top to bottom. The rapper/actor, who can be seen in the film Smokin' Aces, and the soon-to-be-released Terminator Salvation (with The Dark Knight's Christian Bale) proved that he can hold his own as a headliner. Common riffed his way through a smooth set with on-the-spot rap references to the Utah Utes, Barack Obama and Salt Lake City. All while Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) looked on from the balcony.

- Darren Ewing

Destin Daniel Cretton's "Short Term 12" - billed in the Sundance program as "a film about kids and the grown-ups who hit them" - has won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

The winning short films were announced Tuesday night at a ceremony at Park City's Legacy Lodge.

The Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking went to Swedish director Jonas Odell's "Lies," three interlocking episodes about people who are lying.

Honorable mentions were given to:

• "I Live In The Woods," directed by Max Winston.
• "Jerrycan," written and directed by Julius Avery (Australia)
• "Love You More," directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Patrick Marber (who also wrote "Closer" and "Notes on a Scandal") (UK)
• "Omelette," directed by Nadejda Koseva and written by Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria)
• "Protect You + Me," directed by Brady Corbet (the actor who appeared in "Funny Games")
• "Treevenge" directed by Jason Eisener and written by Rob Cotterill (Canada)
• "Western Spaghetti", directed by PES.