The Birth of A Nation dominated the Sundance Film Festival awards announced Saturday night, bagging the top two prizes. Both the US Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for drama went to the powerful story built around a slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831.
The film had notable timing, arriving in the midst of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. At the slavery drama’s Sundance debut, audiences rose in a rare pre-screening standing ovation, followed by another at the film’s conclusion.
Big winners included world features like Sonita and Between Land and Sea, along with US production like Morris From America.
This is the fourth year in a row that a single film has taken the top two prizes in the US dramatic competition, following Fruitvale Station (2013), Whiplash (2014) and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015).
During the film’s Q&A, the writer, director and star Nate Parker said “I made this film for one reason: in the hope of creating change agents.
“You can watch this film and see there are systems that were in place that were corrupt and corrupted people. And the legacy of that still lives with us,” he added.
The Birth of A Nation made headlines when it was purchased for $17.5 million by Fox Searchlight, a festival record. But the festival’s other big-ticket film, Manchester By the Sea, purchased by Amazon Studios for $10 million, wasn’t a winner.