There was no shortage of honors at the 2015 Sundance awards ceremony that closed the Park City festival with the distribution of 27 prizes in a lively affair presided over by comedienne Tig Notaro. Not that awards are really the point of the indie festival, but then again it doesn’t hurt to recognize the most noteworthy films and authors – and it was a pretty good excuse for one last mountain party. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was the big winner of the night taking home both the Dramatic Jury and the Audience Awards, which in the past two years has marked auspicious beginnings for Fruitvale Station and Whiplash. In the documentary department honors went to Meru, Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi’s chronicle of a mountaineering expedition in Tanzania which took the Audience Prize and The Wolfpack which won the Jury Prize. The latter film chronicles the improbable real story of the Angulo siblings, six brothers sequestered in their New York apartment by their eccentric father who turns to watching and re-enacting movies like in a real-life Be Kind Rewind. A film that embodies both the original independent storytelling and the abiding love of film as a life force that this festival has come to symbolize. Complete list of winners
U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Audience Award: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Directing: Robert Eggers, The Witch
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: Tim Talbott, The Stanford Prison Experiment
Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Brandon Trost, The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Special Jury Award for Excellence in Editing: Lee Haughen, Dope
Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision:  Jacqueline Kim and Jennifer Phang, Advantageous
 
U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: The Wolfpack
Directing:  Matthew Heineman, Cartel Land
Audience Award: Meru
Special Jury Award for Social Impact: 3 1/2 Minutes
Special Jury Award for Verite Filmmaking: Western
Special Jury Award for Breakout First Feature: (T)error
Special Jury Award for Cinematography: Matthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll, Cartel Land
 
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: Slow West
Audience Award: Umrika
Directing: Alante Kavaite, The Summer of Sangaile
Special Award for Cinematography: Germain McMicking, Partisan
Acting: Jack Reynor, GlasslandThe Second Mother
 
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Grand Jury Prize: The Russian Woodpecker
Audience Award: Dark Horse
Directing: Kim Longinotto, Dreamcatcher
Special Jury Award for Unparalleled Access: The Chinese Mayor
Special Jury Award for Impact: Pervert Park
Special Jury Award for Editing: Jim Scott, How to Change the World
 
OTHER AWARDS  
Best of Next Audience Award: James White
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize: The Stanford Prison Experiment