Grand Jury Prize

"How was Sundance?" a friend emailed me when I got back from Utah. "I continue to hope that you were surprised, delighted and never bored. " Up to a point, I replied, up to a point. For the truth about the Sundance Film Festival, which gave out dozens of awards Saturday night, is that it's inevitably a mixed bag, where excitement combines with frustration in a particularly Park City way. Those of us who return every year do so because we believe in Sundance's independent mission, and just enough small wonders appear to keep us hooked.

It's considered the Sundance Film Festival's ticket to stardom. But for any number of its past winners, nabbing the festival's Grand Jury Prize has been more like a kiss of death. The Sundance Film Festival opens today, and over the next 10 days, thousands of studio executives, talent agents, film buyers and movie buffs will pack into nine Park City, Utah, movie theaters in search of the hottest new films and filmmakers. The festival will culminate in a Jan.

The gritty boxing saga "Girlfight" and the tender sibling reunion tale "You Can Count on Me" shared top honors Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival, the nation's top showcase for independent movies. The two movies split the grand jury prize for best dramatic film. "Girlfight" also won the dramatic directing award for Karyn Kusama, and "You Can Count on Me" won the Waldo Salt screenwriting award for Kenneth Lonergan, who also directed the film.

The South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference, which wraps up later Saturday, announced its audience award winners. “Short Term 12,” written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, won the audience prize for the Narrative Feature Competition. The film also won the festival's grand jury prize. The story concerns a young woman whose job as a supervisor at a foster-care group home forces her to confront her own long-repressed issues. PHOTOS: The scene at SXSW 2013 “The Short Game,” directed by Josh Greenbaum, won the audience award for the Documentary Feature competition.

AUSTIN, Texas - "Short Term 12," which follows a young woman who works as a supervisor at a foster-care group home, won the grand jury prize in the narrative feature competition at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival Tuesday night. A favorite with festival-goers since its first screening Sunday morning, the film was written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous film was "I Am Not a Hipster. " It stars Brie Larson in a quietly riveting, breakout performance and features John Gallagher Jr. and Kaitlyn Dever in supporting roles.

The twain finally met at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. For the first time, the same two films won both the grand jury prize and the audience award in both the dramatic and documentary competitions at Saturday night's closing ceremony of the Park City, Utah, event. Taking the dramatic prize and the dramatic audience award was the very L.A. "Quinceanera," a coming-of-age story set in an increasingly gentrifying Echo Park and written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.

It was a decision that was both sensible and Solomonic. The Sundance Film Festival split its grand jury prize for best dramatic film between the competition's two consensus favorites and added emphasis to its Saturday night decision by giving each co-winner a second major award. It provided a satisfying ending to what, in terms of overall quality and lack of hair-pulling fiascoes, was the most successful festival in years.

For most of us, the assorted bric-a-brac of an old relationship is something to put in a box on a back shelf somewhere, eventually to find its way to the garbage bin. For filmmaker Ira Sachs, the reminders of an old flame became the basis for his new film, "Keep the Lights On. " The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is playing in L.A., depicts with disarming emotional and sexual intimacy the 10-year arc of a couple who become...