Sundance 2026 Awards – ‘Josephine’ & ‘Nuisance Bear’ Top Winners
by Alex Billington
January 30, 2026
Source: Sundance
The official awards for the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, held in Utah every January, were announced this morning at a ceremony held in person in Utah. This always marks the end of the fest, with a few days of screenings left. The festival wraps this week with at-home viewings in addition to all the in-person events. This year’s line-up featured a grand total of 90 feature films, with a handful of top notch films but not as many as the years before. The main winners for 2026 include Josephine, taking home Grand Jury Prize; along with the polar bear film Nuisance Bear winning Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. The Audience Awards went to Josephine again + (the doc) American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez. I have to say – these Sundance winners are finally right on point this year. All the best films have been given some prize, especially the stand outs like Josephine and Everybody To Kenmure Street and To Hold a Mountain and many others. As always, if any of these films mentioned interest you, we hope you note them down and catch up with them as soon as you can whenever they play near you. All the main 2026 winners listed below.
Here’s the announcement of winners with the jury’s explanation included. The 2026 festival is almost over.
2026 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL JURY AWARDS:
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Josephine – “For the depth and nuance of storytelling. For the delicate and elegant execution of a challenging subject matter. The skilled direction of performance from the cast. The humanistic view of the filmmaker and how they withheld judgment of those dealing with the impact of victimization. This filmmaker offered an empathetic view into the many different ways we as humans cope and try to set the wrongs right.”
The Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic was presented to Josef Kubota Wladyka for Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! – “For bringing us into a creative world that allowed us to explore love, loss, and grief through dance with deep emotion and surprising joy and laughter. We will carry Rinko Kikuchi’s performance in our hearts and thank this film for reminding us that when magical realism works, it is truly a feat to behold.”
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic was presented to Liz Sargent for Take Me Home – “For modeling a different way to tell a story. This is a movie that embraced the truth of the moment on set, necessitating the filmmaker be fully present to shift, reflect, and trust her vision in order to capture the miracle that she did.”
The U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature was presented to Stephanie Ahn for Bedford Park – “For inviting us into a world we’ve never seen depicted on film and daring to share the very personal, the filmmaker upended all of our assumptions of a story told with depth and skill.”
The U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast was presented to The Friend’s House is Here – “For delivering performances that each of us could find ourselves in, revealing a story that is frighteningly universal. The ensemble injects the world with gravity, love, and humor and shows us the way community and connection are often our key to survival.”
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Nuisance Bear – “This film tells an enormous story with great drama, beauty, and verve and powerfully confronts the realities of climate change, the tensions between Indigenous tradition and Western capitalist encroachment, and the complexities of humanity’s relationship with the natural world. It also features a standout sequence that is, like the film itself, humorous, terrifying, and unforgettable. Of all the documentaries we saw, this one was the least… polarizing.”
The Directing Award: U.S. Documentary was presented to J.M. Harper for Soul Patrol – “With remarkable intelligence and resourcefulness and an elegant attention to cultural context, this filmmaker achieves a skillful balance of archival footage, vivid reenactments, and troubling hallucinations. In doing so, he makes palpable the trauma of Black Americans who have never gotten due recognition for their sacrifices in war.”
The Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary was presented to Matt Hixon for Barbara Forever – “Drawing on an artist’s deep archive of original work and forming exquisite connections between history and biography, art, and life, this intimate and expansive portrait gives a pioneering figure in queer experimental filmmaking her rightful due.”
The U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change was presented to The Lake – “This environmental crisis story is a probing and provocative look at the interdependency of science and faith and the power of individuals and communities to avert disaster by working together. We were moved and encouraged by its vision of people working across political divides.”
The U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence was presented to Who Killed Alex Odeh? – “This engrossing and surprising true crime saga begins as an investigation into an unsolved murder and, with great procedural rigor, excavates a nefarious history about America’s role in suppressing justice for a Palestinian American family.”
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to Shame and Money – “For his powerful and unique portrayal of human dignity in contemporary Kosovo that universally resonates. A sensitive filmmaker who masterfully draws the audience into the daily struggles of a family. For his deep empathy for his characters in a crucial moment in which they are beginning again.”
The Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic was presented to Andrius Blaževičius for How to Divorce During the War – “For his immense talent and steady hand in a darkly comedic film about life in times of war, this director’s subtle observation holds a mirror to our contradictions without neglecting the humanity of his characters.”
The World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision was presented to Filipiñana – “With stunning visual command and sensitivity to the setting, the filmmaker thoughtfully evokes a world where characters languish. Through its static form, the filmmaker highlights insidious tension between luxury and labor.”
The World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble was presented to Lady – “For a film full of depth and texture and with a rhythm all its own, with an electric ensemble cast that brings life and humor and insight to a story about day-to-day challenges and finding safety in unexpected friendships.”
The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to To Hold a Mountain – “This visually and emotionally stunning film transported us to a remote mountaintop and into the most intimate moments of a family fighting to protect not only their land, but their way of life. The truest example of the power of cinema to make the personal political.”
The Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary was presented to Itab Azzam & Jack MacInnes for One In A Million – “Elegantly exploring the ideas of freedom and the importance of home in the aftermath of war, this film impressed us with its sense of scale and decade-long directorial commitment to its participants. It is a beautiful synthesis of one family’s migration across multiple countries as they seek refuge from societal upheaval.”
The World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance was presented to Everybody To Kenmure Street – “Not your typical social issue film, this documentary utilizes a touch of humor and a wide diversity of perspectives to call upon people to stand up for their neighbors. In a time when xenophobia and authoritarianism are on the rise, the power of collective action here is a global rallying cry.”
The World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact was presented to Birds of War – “By turning the camera on themselves, the co-directors follow the arc of their own love story as the vehicle for a deeply moving narrative about the complexity of revolution and war. This film showcases the power of journalism through emotion and vulnerability; enduring, bearing witness, and telling one’s own story oftentimes has the most impact.”
The NEXT Innovator Award, Presented by Adobe was awarded to The Incomer – “This award goes to a boldly original comic fable that blends folklore with formal playfulness. Deadpan humor, animation, and myth collide — proof that fearless invention can be both uproarious and deeply humane.”
The NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression, Presented by Adobe was awarded to TheyDream – “For fully exploring multiple filmmaking techniques, blending craft and emotion to tell a personal story of those often overlooked — more importantly with loving humor and brutal honesty.”
2026 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AUDIENCE AWARDS:
The Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, Presented by Acura was awarded to Josephine
The Audience Award: U.S. Documentary, Presented by Acura was awarded to American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez
The Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic, Presented by United Airlines was awarded to HOLD ONTO ME (Κράτα Με)
The Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary, Presented by United Airlines was awarded to One In A Million
The Audience Award: NEXT, Presented by Adobe was awarded to Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
Congrats to all of 2026’s winners! Keep an eye on all these films, catch them when they show in your area or at another festival soon. I am very happy with most of these! Josephine is my Best of the Fest pick as well – a truly phenomenal film that deserves all these awards and more. Especially because this will help bring even more attention to it, since it’s a challenging topic to make a film about and a hard film to watch because of the disturbing subject matter. I’m also a fan of offbeat kooky comedy The Incomer which won in NEXT. As for the documentaries, I also liked Joybubbles in the competition but my favorite docs aren’t in the comp sections. I’m also a big fan of the film Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! which would’ve been a good alternate pick for the Grand Jury Prize instead of Josephine as well. In the World Cinema section, the film Shame and Money is very good but not really on the same level as Josephine. Nonetheless, I’m just glad to see many of the better films awarded anyway as it’ll help them gain more attention. Every last one of these is worth your time and should be seen anyway – Sundance always brings great new filmmakers to the fest year after year.
For more info, visit Sundance.org. Also see last year’s winners here. Follow all our Sundance 2026 coverage.
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