Director Beth de Araújo, Josephine
U.S. Latinx directors won top honors at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, taking major awards across several categories, led by Brazilian-American filmmaker Beth de Araújo, who received both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for her sophomore feature Josephine.
De Araújo became the fourth Latinx director—and second Latina—to secure the festival’s top prize, following Colombian-American Alessandra Lacorazza for In the Summers in 2024, Mexican-American Alfonso Gomez-Rejon for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl in 2015, and Peruvian-American Victor Nuñez, who won the Grand Jury Prize in 1993 for Ruby in Paradise.
Starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, Josephine follows eight-year-old Josephine, who, after witnessing a crime in Golden Gate Park, begins to act out in search of a way to regain control over her sense of safety, while the adults around her are powerless to console her. The film is a tense, empathetic portrait of a young girl wrestling with fear and anger she can neither escape nor fully understand after encountering violence.
Venezuelan-Canadian filmmaker Gabriela Osio Vanden won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary for Nuisance Bear, co-directed by Jack Weisman. The film follows a polar bear forced to navigate a human world of tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as its ancient migration collides with modern life. When a sacred predator is branded a nuisance, it becomes unclear who truly belongs in their shared landscape.
Chilean-Belgian director Felipe Bustos Sierra received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance for his British documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street, about one of the most spontaneous and successful acts of civil resistance in recent memory. The events took place in May 2021, after a Home Office dawn raid in Scotland’s most diverse neighborhood, when hundreds of residents rushed into the streets to stop the deportation of their neighbors.
Puerto Rican American filmmaker William David Caballero was presented the NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression for his animated documentary feature TheyDream. After 20 years of chronicling his Puerto Rican family, Caballero and his mother face devastating losses. Through tears and laughter, they craft animations that bring their loved ones back to life, discovering that every act of creation is also an act of letting go.
David Alvarado’s American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez won the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition. The film tells the story of Luis Valdez, who pushed Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, overcoming political resistance and industry skepticism while crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.
As previously announced, the Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting was presented to Noah Roja and Filippo Carrozza for the Argentine film The Liars / Los mentirosos, directed by Eduardo Braun Costa.
The 42nd edition of the Sundance Film Festival took place January 22–February 1 in Park City, Utah. Beginning next year, the festival will move permanently to Boulder, Colorado.
