Sundance 2022 Winners: ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ and ‘Navalny’ Nab Audience Prizes

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticThe virtual Sundance Film Festival concluded with a virtual awards show — no host this year, just a series of statements and videos parceled out across two hours by Twitter.

It was a strangely anti-climactic way of wrapping a low-key festival, while giving winners a chance to prep polite, crew-inclusive acceptance speeches.Among the audience prizes, U.S.

Dramatic winner “Cha Cha Real Smooth” represents the biggest sale of the festival so far, scooped up by Apple for $15 million — 1,000 times the budget of writer-director-star Cooper Raiff’s shoestring-budgeted debut, “Shithouse.”The Festival Favorite award went to “Navalny.” This prize, selected by audiences from across all sections of the festival, recognizes a late addition to the lineup (“Navalny” was not announced until this past Monday), protected on account of its political sensitivity, as the documentary tracks Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while he was recovering from an assassination attempt in Berlin.

Accepting the honor, director Daniel Roher said, “Navalny would be so thrilled if he knew he won the People’s Choice award.” In recent years, the once-U.S.-centric festival’s world competition categories have emerged as a key launchpad for international films (like “Hive” and “Flee” last year).