Push
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Push (Based on the Novel by Sapphire), dir. Lee Daniels
Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
We Live in Public, dir. Ondi Timoner
U.S. Special Jury Prize, Dramatic:
Mo’Nique for her performance, Push (Based on the Novel by Sapphire); director Lynn Shelton for “independent spirit,” Humpday
U.S. Special Jury Prize, Documentary:
Good Hair, dir. Jeff Stilso
World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic:
The Maid, dir. Sebastian Silva
World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary:
Rough Aunties, dir. Kim Longinotto
The ticket simply read “Sneak Preview 2.” Earlier in the week, the mystery event had been colloquially referred to as “An Evening with Steven Soderbergh,” as in a presentation of clips plus a Q&A. But everybody seemed to know what was going on: Yo, Steven Soderbergh is showing his new film, The Girlfriend Experience, on the down-low. Sh, don’t tell anybody. Except your friends. And people who incessantly blog. And Twitter. So when the director and Geoff Gilmore walked out onto the Eccles stage where two stools were set up, the packed house collectively waited for confirmation. “There have been a lot of rumors going around, saying that we’re going to show something,” Soderbergh said. “I don’t know how these things get started…[Dramatic pause]…except we are.” Whooping! Clapping! Did I just hear a wolf whistle? He mentioned a few caveats: This was a work-in-progress, it was being shown on a 1080p reduction from a 4k file (cue tech geeks uncontrollably drooling), a few kinks were still being ironed out. Then the lights went down.
When you walk up Park City’s Main Street during the festival’s first weekend, or go to any of the Premiere selection screenings at the mammoth Eccles Theater, you’re likely to see certain types of Sundance attendants. They’re usually the sort of well-heeled locals who sport big fur hats, expensive cashmere coats and pricey tans, or maybe they’re out-of-towners rocking impressive L.L.Bean winter wear, all lookie-loo-ing around in the hopes of catching a glimpse of a celebrity in the flesh. The press screenings, however, offer a far different variety of filmgoer. These folks are pale and pasty, in bulky coats and threadbare toques, blessed with a posture that suggests too many hours hunched over a laptop and a brain filled with obscure pop knowledge. They blink like moles when they exit the Yarrow Hotel’s screening room. Their social skills run the gamut from charmingly nerdy, at least among their own ranks, to borderline autistic. These are the press corp’s hard-core geeks. The number of journalists and industry players attending this year may be down significantly from 2008 (the decrease number was around 6,000, a figure I haven’t been able to confirm but seems totally plausible). Yet the movie Moorlocks are still legion here.
Imagine, if you will, a Judd Apatow comedy in which settled-down married man Jason Segel hears a knock on his door at 2am. Hey, it’s Seth Rogen, his old college buddy who’s been living the proto-hippie wandering life and decided to show up unannounced! One night, after a large amount of recreational substances are smoked and spirits are consumed, the two chums make a bet to enter a local amateur-porn contest. Their entry: a short film of the two them screwing…each other. Oh, the uncomfortable, homosexual panic-soaked hilarity!
“What Next?”