Jewison also directed the romantic comedy Moonstruck and1967 race drama In the Heat of the Night, which critic Leonard Maltin says "caught lightning in a bottle."
This drama about a young man's journey with his 5-year-old nephew into the Vietnamese countryside is composed mostly in long, unbroken takes — to quietly mesmerizing effect.
"You won't see us being too nostalgic ..." says festival director Eugene Hernandez. "The best way to honor the history of Sundance and the history of independent storytelling is by looking ahead."
Based on Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste, DuVernay's film draws a line between India's caste system, the hierarchies of Nazi Germany and the historic subjugation of Black people in the United States.
Peter Sarsgaard is a man with early-onset dementia and Jessica Chastain is a single mother with a traumatic past in a film about two people who come into each other's lives at just the right time.
Bassett was nominated in 1993 for her portrayal as singer Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It, and in 2022 for Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Giamatti says his latest movie, filmed at various prep schools in Massachusetts and directed by Alexander Payne, triggered memories of the time he spent as a day student at a private school.
Brown won an Emmy for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in The People v. O.J. Simpson, and another for his role in This is Us. He now appears in the film American Fiction.
If awards season has been building toward a second match-up of Barbenheimer, this round went to Oppenheimer. It also won best director, best drama actor, best supporting actor and for best score.