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Festival coverage

Sundance Film Festival

2006

Echo Park, LA won both the Dramatic and Audience Awards
Echo Park, LA won both the Dramatic and Audience Awards

A good year for festival hits, one film that certainly made it big on the world stage after premiering at Sundance 2006, was Little Miss Sunshine. Of the homegrown films Quinceañera - about Latino kids coming of age in LA - took home the Grand Jury Dramatic Prize, while Sudanese documentary God Grew Tired Of Us, won the Grand Jury Documentary Prize, they also scooped both domestic Audience Awards.

Winners of the International competitions were sinister noir Tzameti (Dramatic) and Mexican documentary focussing on freeway builders In The Pit (Documentary). Audience Awards went to De Nadie - a documentary focussing on Mexican migration to the US - and No.2 - about a matriarch organising a family feast at which to announce her successor.

Other years (21)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Little Miss Sunshine
    Review preview for Little Miss Sunshine

    Writer Michael Arndt has cleverly captured the bribery and corruption which lie at the heart of most families.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A dysfunctional family's road trip to a beauty pageant.
  • Factotum
    Review preview for Factotum

    As compulsive as a 40-a-day fag habit.

    Kotleta · 5 out of 5
    Portrait of the drinker as an artist.
  • 'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris
    Review preview for 'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris

    Any doubts that this film might just be a devotee’s wilful championing of a mediocre talent that found its natural niche are immediately banished when he sings.

    Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
    Documentary about "the greatest voice you never heard".
  • The Foot Fist Way
    Review preview for The Foot Fist Way

    As with all comedies about ineptitude, there must come solemn moments of triumph; but, for once, this time they don't come soaked in schmaltz or get undermined by a instant gag.

    Richard Mellor · 3.5 out of 5
    Comedy kicks in the life of a tae kwon do teacher.
  • Gruesome
    Review preview for Gruesome

    A modest yet impressively assured psycho-mystery.

    Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
    An infernal Groundhog Day as a student seems destined to relive the day of her murder.
  • Wristcutters: A Love Story
    Review preview for Wristcutters: A Love Story

    Wristcutters isn’t a story of despair but of hope, moving on, and, yes, love.

    Daniel Hooper · 4 out of 5
    A young man kills himself and awakens in a land where everything is "just a little bit worse".
  • Stranger Than Paradise
    Review preview for Stranger Than Paradise

    A complex of narrative symmetry and existential ennui pointing to something far more resonant than the sum of its parts.

    Anton Bitel · 4.5 out of 5
    An unlikely trio head for Florida in search of paradise.
  • Wild Tigers I Have Known
    Review preview for Wild Tigers I Have Known

    Rather too rarefied to begin with, Archer’s profound story soon shapes up into a reasonably gripping potboiler, beautifully shot and acutely tense.

    Richard Mellor · 3 out of 5
    Sexual awakening of a teenager who tries to engage with the object of his affections by posing as a woman on the phone.
  • One Last Dance
    Review preview for One Last Dance

    One Last Dance tries to be too clever for its own good, attempting to explore a mixture of themes that don’t blend together well.

    Darren Amner · 2 out of 5
    An assassin hunts a child-kidnapper.
  • A Little Trip To Heaven
    Review preview for A Little Trip To Heaven

    Director Baltasar Kormakur’s gripping thriller is inspired by classic noir - the cinematography is as bleak as the story and there is no neat happy ending.

    Leanne McGrath · 3.5 out of 5
    An insurance investigator probes the suspicious death of a conman whose sister and dodgy hubby inherit $1million after his demise.

A–Z of Sundance Film Festival 2006 reviews

Features

  • Sundance : Day Ten
    The final day of the festival, and we catch up on two movies; and the Sundance awards.
  • Sundance : Day Nine
    The final day of press screenings, and Amber dips her toes into some of the higher profile releases. Runaway laundry over Justin Timberlake's debut?
  • Sundance : Day Eight
    Early morning wakeup calls, discussing KZ with director Rex Bloomstein; The Night Listener and Art School Confidential are the movies of the day.
  • Sundance : Day Seven
    A short reminisce on the sheer volume of new and exciting cinema that is largely ignored by the press at Sundance; and the powerful drama Journey From The Fall.
  • Sundance : Day Six
    The Sundance slimming plan (patent pending..), and interviewing Paul Laverty and Clive Gordon on their new film Cargo.
  • Sundance 2006 : Day Five
    Mascara worries do not faze Amber on her fifth day of Sundance! Indeed, the best film of the festival thus far awaits... And the search for a Bud may be the toughest challenge, yet.
  • Sundance : Day Four
    Amber interviews cast and director of Lucky Number Slevin, enjoys the hospitality of the Sundance Institute, as well as snagging her first goody-bag!
  • Sundance : Day Three
    Nosebleeds, technological SNAFUs, and soaking up the atmosphere - along to the sentimental tones of Rufus Wainwright. And another three movies!
  • Sundance : Day Two
    Three movies a day never gets old, but late-night wine and DVD screeners soothe Amber's exhausted nerves.
  • Sundance 2006: Day One
    Day One: Amber checks out the keynote speech, and gets used to the freezing cold and alcohol-free parties.
  • Sundance 2006 Preview
    A strong lineup for this year's Sundance, let EyeForFilm guide us through it..