Utama by Alejandro Loayza Grisi
The Sundance Film Festival announced the winners of its 2022 virtual edition last night, and there were several Latin American and U.S. Latinx filmmakers among this year’s winners.
The Bolivian film Utama, the debut feature by director Alejandro Loayza Grisi, was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, the top award in the international competition. “A universal story of epic proportions” as described by the film festival, Utama is set in the Bolivian highlands and tells the story of an elderly Quechua couple has been living the same daily routine for years. When an uncommonly long drought threatens their entire way of life, Virginio and Sisa face the dilemma of resisting or being defeated by the passage of time. With the arrival of their grandson Clever, the three of them will face, each in their own way, the environment, the necessity for change, and the meaning of life itself.
Mexican actress Teresa Sánchez was presented with the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting for her performance in the role of María García, an iron-willed businesswoman who fights the impending collapse of her tequila factory in Dos Estaciones, the debut fiction film by Juan Pablo González.
In the World Cinema Documentary competition, the Brazilian film The Territory directed by American filmmaker Alex Pritz and co-created with the Uru-eu-wau-wau community, about land conflict on Indigenous territory in the Brazilian Amazon, was presented with two prizes: the Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft and the Audience Award.
Mexican-American screenwriter K.D. Dávila was the winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Emergency, the satirical comedy by Carey Williams, about several young black and Latino friends who carefully weigh the risks of calling the police during an emergency.
In the short film competition, the Jury Award for Best U.S. Fiction Short was presented to Mexican-American director Walter Thompson-Hernández for If I Go Will They Miss Me, about a 12-year old boy from projects who is yearning to fly on a plane.
Lastly, the Brazilian film A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here, written and directed by Érica Sarmet was the winner of the Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast, presented to actors Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro and Lorre Motta. The film follows a middle-aged motorcyclist who, tired of loneliness, goes to a lesbian party for the first time. There she meets four young queers who share their home and affections.
The 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival took place January 20-30, online.
