Sundance 2023: ‘A Thousand and One’ wins Sundance grand jury prize

A drama about an impoverished single mother and her son in New York City, won the Sundance Film Festival’s grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, while ‘Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project’ was awarded the top prize in the U.S. documentary category

“A Thousand and One,” a drama about an impoverished single mother and her son in New York City, won the Sundance Film Festival’s grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic competition, while “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” was awarded the top prize in the U.S. documentary category.

This year’s winners were announced at an awards ceremony Friday afternoon in Park City, Utah, which included an audience prize for the documentary “ 20 Days in Mariupol.”

Writer Jeremy O. Harris, filmmaker Eliza Hittman and actor Marlee Matlin judged the U.S. dramatic competition.

Harris, through tears, said he asked to give the grand jury prize to “A Thousand and One” and writer-director A.V. Rockwell himself.

“Never have I seen a life so similar to my own rendered with such nuance and tenderness” Harris said. “This film reached into my gut and pulled from it every emotion I’ve learned to mask in these spaces.”

Rockwell, who made her feature debut with the film, was similarly emotional.

“This has been such a long journey for me but the institute has been such a beautiful support system,” Rockwell said.