The Sundance Film Festival has announced the six juries awarding prizes at the 2009 Festival.
There are 24 jurors in total. Among the well-known names are veteran actress Virginia Madsen (Sideways, Firewall) and Aussie "new wave" director Gillian Armstrong (Charlotte Gray, Death Defying Acts). They are joined by a range of filmmakers and journalists.
This year, the short films are, for the first time, to be given a special awards ceremony of their own, presumably as part of Sundance's ongoing commitment to the form and, possibly, because going to Utah is expensive and not all filmmakers - especially those on shoestring budgets with short films - can afford to stay for the entire duration.
The six juries are:
Dramatic Jury
Virginia Madsen – (Actress: Sideway, Number 23, The Rainmaker, David Lynch's Dune)
Scott McGehee – (Producer/Director/Writer: Uncertainty, The Deep End, Suture)
Maud Nadler – (Producer/HBO Films: Relative Values)
Mike White – (Writer/Director/Producer: Year Of The Dog)
Boaz Yakin – (Director/Writer/Producer: Fresh, Remember The Titans, Hostel)
Documentary Jury
Patrick Creadon – (Cinematographer/Director/Writer: Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A., Flow: For The Love of Water)
Carl Deal – (Director/Producer: Trouble The Water)
Andrea Meditch – (Executive Producer/Producer: Man on Wire, In The Shadow Of The Moon)
Sam Pollard – (Editor: When The Levees Broke, Jungle Fever, Mo' Better Blues)
Marina Zenovich – (Director/Producer/Writer: Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired)
World Dramatic Jury
Colin Brown (New York) – (Editor: Screen International)
Christine Jeffs (New Zealand) – (Director/Writer: Rain, Stroke; Director: Sunshine Cleaning)
Vibeke Windelov (Denmark) – (Producer: Dogville, Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark)
World Documentary Jury
Gillian Armstrong (Australia) – (Director: Death Defying Acts, Oscar & Lucinda, Little Women)
Thom Powers (New York) – (Documentary Programmer, Toronto International Film Festival)
Hubert Sauper (France) – (Director/Producer: Darwin's Nightmare)
Shorts Jury
Gerardo Naranjo – (Director/Writer/Producer: Voy a explotar, Malachance, Perro Negro)
Lou Taylor Pucci – (Actor: Thumbsucker)
Sharon Swart – (Reporter: Variety)
Alfred P. Sloan Jury - Award presented to the writer and director of an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character
Fran Bagenal – (Professor of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado)
Rodney Brooks – (Panasonic Professor of Robotics, MIT Computer Science & AI Lab)
Ray Gesteland – (Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah)
Jeffrey Nachmanoff – (Writer: The Day After Tomorrow; Writer/Director: Traitor)
Alex Rivera – (Director/Writer/Editor: Sleep Dealer)
Shorts Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Tuesday, January 20th, with feature awards announced on January 25. The usual 'can we get a ticket, please, please, can we get a ticket' shenanigans permitting, we'll be bringing you all the news from the awards as it happens.
