Sundance: The Believer, Hedwig Saluted
January 28, 2001 -- PARK CITY, Utah — Jurors at this year's Sundance Film Festival were under strict orders not to deliver a tie for best film — as they did last year — and complied by awarding the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize to the provocative drama The Believer Saturday night. The film, written and directed by Henry Bean, stars Ryan Gosling in a breakout performance as a Jewish youth who denies his heritage and embraces fascism.
Bean appeared amazed at the honor, saying that he never even expected the film to make it into the festival.
The outrageous transsexual musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch — already the talk of the festival — picked up two awards — the audience award, and the directing award for director and star John Cameron Mitchell.
A T-shirt-clad Mitchell took the stage with his crewmembers, who all bore Hedwig's lipstick-smeared likeness safety-pinned to their shirts. He thanked departed New Line exec Michael de Luca, who co-produced the film, and his crew for helping him direct "since I had a wig on for about a year."
The Hedwig fashion statement aside, emcee Donal Logue was right to quip, "It's not the Oscars. No one's asking who designed your gown — or your fleece."
Multiple awards also went to the skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, which picked up the audience award and the directing award in the documentary categories. Director Stacy Peralta thanked his sponsor, Vans, adding, "They didn't give us enough money, but they did outfit us with [plenty of] shoes."
A special jury prize went to actors Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson for their performances as a bickering couple in In the Bedroom. Todd Field, the Eyes Wide Shut actor who made his directorial debut with the film, accepted the award on his actors' behalf. Miramax has picked up the film for distribution.
Host Logue just happened to be the recipient of a rare special jury prize for acting last year.
While the top honors at this year's festival escaped a dreaded tie, one category ended up in a dead heat: Dogtown and Z-Boys shared the Documentary Audience Award with Scout's Honor, which also won this year's Freedom of Expression Award.
Other top awards:
World Cinema Audience AwardZhang Yimou's The Road Home, about a businessman who returns to his hometown for his father's funeral
Cinematography, DocumentaryAlbert Maysles for LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton
Cinematography, DramaGiles Nuttgens for The Deep End
Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardChristopher Nolan for the inside-out-and-backwards noir Memento, based on the short story by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Presenter Kasi Lemmons, whose Caveman's Valentine opened the festival this year, praised Nolan for "throwing his index cards up in the air" in creating the unusually structured film.
Grand Jury Prize, DocumentarySouthern Comfort, directed by Kate Davis, about a female-to-male transsexual who is dying of ovarian cancer and is refused treatment by several doctors in the Deep South
Special Jury Prize, DocumentaryChildren Underground, directed by Edet Belzberg, about a group of orphaned children in Bucharest, Romania