Latest News

Danny Moloshok/Invision, via Associated Press Ryan Coogler, the director and screenwriter of "Fruitvale," accepted the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

LOS ANGELES — "Fruitvale," a drama produced by Forest Whitaker and snapped up for distribution earlier this week by Harvey Weinstein, won the Sundance Film Festival's top prize on Saturday night.

"This will not be the last time you guys walk to a podium," said Tom Rothman, the former chairman of 20th Century Fox, as he presented the festival's grand jury prize for an American narrative film to "Fruitvale." The drama, which is based on a 2009 shooting in Oakland, Calif., had already taken home one of Sundance's coveted audience awards.

Mr. Weinstein is expected to back "Fruitvale" as a contender in next year's Oscar race. Ryan Coogler, a first-time filmmaker, directed and wrote the film, which stars Michael B. Jordan ("Parenthood") and features Octavia Spencer, an Oscar winner last year for "The Help."

"Fruitvale" had little prefestival buzz, and the same was true of another big winner on Saturday. "Blood Brother," about a disenfranchised American who travels to India and stumbles across an orphanage for HIV-positive children, won the grand jury and audience awards in the United States documentary category.

Lake Bell won the festival's prestigious Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for "In a World," a comedy set in the world of voice-over actors; she also directed the film and played its leading role.

The Sundance awards ceremony, a laid-back affair where attendees wear blue jeans and fleece and sit in folding chairs, was held in Park City, Utah, and streamed live online. Over 30 prizes — chunks of glass that resemble broken ice — were given out in categories that included acting and cinematography.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the director, writer and star of one of this year's buzziest festival entries, "Don Jon's Addiction," served as M.C. (Robert Redford, who founded the Sundance Institute in 1981, cast a 10-year-old Mr. Gordon-Levitt in "A River Runs Through It," the actor noted in his opening remarks.) Jurors included Mr. Rothman, the documentarian Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") and the actor-director Ed Burns ("The Brothers McMullen.")

Foreign film jury prizes on Saturday went to "Jiseul," a drama set during the 1948 Jeju massacre in Korea that was directed by Muel O., and "A River Changes Course," Kalyanee Mam's documentary about rural villages in Cambodia.

They joined a smattering of foreign filmmakers who have already won accolades at this year's festival. Kentaro Hagiwara of Japan was given the Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award, a $10,000 prize based on past work and the script for a follow-up movie; Mr. Hagiwara previously directed a short film called "Super Star" and his next project is a coming-of-age romance called "Spectacled Tiger." The Sundance Institute and Mahindra Group, a Mumbai-based industrial conglomerate, on Tuesday recognized four emerging directors from overseas with $10,000 prizes and "year-round mentoring" from institute staff for their next feature. They are Sarthak Dasgupta of India; Jonas Carpignano of Italy; Aly Muritiba of Brazil; Vendela Vida of Britain and Eva Weber of Germany.