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Festival coverage

Sundance Film Festival

2005

Murderball won the Audience Documentary Award
Murderball won the Audience Documentary Award

Celebrating its 21st year. The Dramatic Grand Jury Prize went to Forty Shades Of Blue - "the story of Laura, a Russian woman living in Memphis with Alan, a legendary music producer twice her age...When Alan's estranged adult son comes for a visit a bond develops between them that destabilises her ordered world." - while Why We Fight - examining how the American arms industry has become an economic necessity - was named best documentary. In the World Cinema competitions, Shape Of The Moon - about three generations of a Christian family living in Muslim-dominated Indonesia - won the Documentary Award, while and drama about post-civil war Angola - The Hero - won the Dramatic plaudit.

Audience Documentary awards went to Murderball and Shake Hands With The Devil, and their Dramatic votes went to Hustle & Flow and Brothers.

Other years (21)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Layer Cake
    Review preview for Layer Cake

    The latest piece of gangland roughage is suitably violent, with a who-gives-a-monkeys attitude.

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 2 out of 5
    Cockney drug dealer become enmeshed in gang war over stolen happy pills.
  • On A Clear Day
    Review preview for On A Clear Day

    Mullan brings a gruff, no-nonsense persona to his role, making Frank's emotional journey well worth taking.

    Tony Sullivan · 4 out of 5
    A redundant shipworker from Glasgow dreams of swimming the English Channel.
  • 3-Iron
    Review preview for 3-Iron

    Mysteries lend the romance an irrational trajectory.

    Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
    The silent love affair between a battered wife and a respectful intruder.
  • Shake Hands With The Devil
    Review preview for Shake Hands With The Devil

    Simultaneously an incredibly powerful indictment of the Western world’s apathy... and a testament to the innate goodness of man.

    Caro Ness · 5 out of 5
    Story of Canadian Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire's UN role in Rwanda, tracing his return to the country 10 years after the genocide.
  • The Dying Gaul
    A recently bereaved screenwriter struggles to get his film produced without too many compromises, but personal compromises can be much more dangerous.
  • The Upside Of Anger
    Review preview for The Upside Of Anger

    Acting of this calibre can change the world, if only for a moment.

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
    Deflecting the fury of a woman scorned with frequent showers, Bloody Marys and a little light humour.
  • Tony Takitani
    Review preview for Tony Takitani

    An accomplished but difficult to watch film.

    Tim Bryant · 3 out of 5
    A lonely man's search for happiness.
  • Pretty Persuasion
    A clever girl in a Beverly Hills private school has no inhibitions about causing emotional havoc.
  • Oldboy
    Review preview for Oldboy

    A film both extreme and tender, yet tremendously entertaining.

    Iain Macleod · 5 out of 5
    A revenge drama from South Korea creates a mystery for the long term prisoner who is released. Now out to own as part of the box set.
  • Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
    Review preview for Kekexili: Mountain Patrol

    A remarkable acievement.

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
    True story of poacher hunters in the mountains of Tibet.

A–Z of Sundance Film Festival 2005 reviews

Features