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PARK CITY, Utah<\/strong> \u2013 Beth de Ara\u00fajo\u2019s potent family drama \u201cJosephine,\u201d<\/a> about an 8-year-old girl who witnesses a sexual assault, won top prizes at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival<\/a>. The juries announced the winners Friday in Park City, Utah.<\/p>\n \u201cJosephine,\u201d starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as the girl\u2019s parents, became one of the festival\u2019s early consensus hits despite its difficult subject matter, which was based on the filmmaker\u2019s own experience at that age. The young girl is played by newcomer Mason Reeves, whom de Ara\u00fajo discovered at a San Francisco farmer\u2019s market. The film won both the U.S. dramatic grand jury prize and the festival\u2019s audience award but does not yet have distribution.<\/p>\n De Ara\u00fajo wiped tears while accepting the award and gave an emotional speech about rape culture and survivors. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to talk about rape. Even just saying the word makes people uncomfortable. But because of this there only leaves more shame and silence for survivors,\u201d De Ara\u00fajo said. \u201cIn order to honor survivors we must try to understand the people who rape in an attempt to prevent it from happening again. We have the resources, we just don\u2019t make it a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n Filmmakers Janicza Bravo, Nisha Ganatra and Azazel Jacobs were the jury for the U.S. Dramatic Competition. They cited the film\u2019s \u201cdepth and nuance of storytelling\u201d and its \u201cdelicate and elegant execution of a challenging subject matter.\u201d Other titles in the U.S. dramatic competition included Josef Kubota Wladyka’s \u201cHa-chan, Shake Your Booty!,\u201d which got a special prize for directing.<\/p>\n The grand jury prize for best U.S. documentary was awarded to \u201cNuisance Bear,\u201d about a polar bear navigating a human world. <\/p>\n \u201cIt took us 10 years to make this movie,\u201d said \u201cNuisance Bear\u201d co-director Gabriela Osio Vanden, who was visibly emotional accepting the prize. \u201cWe all do have a story to tell, including animals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo Hold a Mountain,\u201d about a mother and daughter in the remote highlands of Montenegro defending their land from becoming a NATO military training ground, took the international documentary prize. \u201cShame and Money,\u201d about a Kosovar family who has to move from a village to the capital, picked up the narrative world cinema award.<\/p>\n Louis Paxton’s quirky Scottish film \u201cThe Incomer,\u201d about a pair of siblings on a remote island whose lives are upended when an awkward government official (Domhnall Gleeson) arrives to try to evict them, won the innovator award in the festival’s NEXT section.<\/p>\n Other films that won audience awards included documentaries \u201cAmerican Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,\u201d about the pioneering playwright and screenwriter, and \u201cOne in a Million,\u201d which chronicled a family’s journey from Syria to Germany and back again across 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican Pachuco\u201d director David Alvarado said Valdez came to the first ever Sundance in 1981, when it was still called the U.S. Film and Video Festival, with the film \u201cZoot Suit.\u201d That a documentary about him played at the last Sundance in Park City is a full circle moment. <\/p>\n \u201cIt shows the full commitment to the Latino story that Sundance has always championed,\u201d Alvarado said. <\/p>\n The festival previously awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which celebrates outstanding films representing science or technology, to Andrew Stanton\u2019s \u201cIn the Blink of an Eye.\u201d<\/p>\n High profile Sundance films like Olivia Wilde’s \u201cThe Invite,\u201d<\/a> the queer horror \u201cLeviticus\u201d and the Charli xcx movie \u201cThe Moment\u201d<\/a> did not premiere in competition and were not eligible for jury or audience awards. <\/p>\n Sundance prizes<\/a> can sometimes be the first stop for eventual Oscar nominees and winners, which notably happened with \u201cCODA\u201d and \u201cSummer of Soul.\u201d Documentaries more so than narrative films have a better track record of making it to the Oscars stage<\/a>. Three of last year\u2019s special prize winners are nominated for best documentary<\/a> this year, \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor,\u201d \u201cCutting Through Rocks\u201d and \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin\u201d and the two others were among the festival favorites, \u201cCome See Me in the Good Light\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe Alabama Solution.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Last year\u2019s U.S. Dramatic grand jury prize went to the war satire \u201cAtropia,\u201d while the audience award was given to the dark comedy \u201cTwinless,\u201d with Dylan O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n The Sundance Film Festival runs through Sunday.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n