For its eleventh year, Sundance Film Festival has brought movie lovers from all over the world to share their passion and creativity for film. The 2011 programme showcases and supports the work of imaginative and original filmmakers. Here is a selection of this year’s award-winning festival films:

Project Nim : Opening Night Film
James Marsh 2011. United Kingdom
Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award:

From the Oscar-winning team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who, in the 1970s, became the focus of a landmark experiment that aimed to prove an ape—if raised and nurtured like a human child—could learn to communicate using sign language. If successful, the consequences of the project would be profound, breaking down the barrier between man and his closest animal relative and fundamentally redefining what it is to be human. Combining the testimony of all the key participants, newly discovered archival film, and dramatic imagery, Project Nim tells the picturesque story of one chimpanzee’s extraordinary journey through human society and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way. – Courtesy of sundance.org

Circumstance
Maryam Keshavarz 2011 U.S.A., Iran, Lebanon
Winner of the U.S. Dramatic Competition Audience Award:

Teenagers Atafeh, and her best friend, Shireen, are experimenting with their burgeoning sexuality amidst the subculture of Tehran’s underground art scene when Atafeh’s brother, Mehran, returns home from drug rehab as the prodigal son. Battling his demons, Mehran vehemently renounces his former life as a classical musician and joins the morality police. He disapproves of his sister’s developing intimate relationship with Shireen and becomes obsessed with saving Shireen from Atafeh’s influence. Suddenly, the two siblings, who were close confidants, are entangled in a triangle of suspense, surveillance, and betrayal as the once-liberal haven of the family home becomes a place of danger for the beautiful Atafeh. – Courtesy of sundance.org

Meet the Artist:

BEING ELMO: A Puppeteer’s Journey
Constance Marks 2011 U.S.A.
Winner of the Special Jury Prize, U.S. Documentary Competition:

Each and every day, millions of kids tune in to Sesame Street to see one of the world’s most adored and recognizable children’s characters, a furry red monster named Elmo. Yet, with all of Elmo’s fame, the man behind the Muppet is able to walk down the street without being recognized. – Courtesy of sundance.org

Kinyarwanda
Alrick Brown 2011 U.S.A., Rwanda.
Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award for Dramatic Film:

Fresh, insightful, and profoundly moving, Kinyarwanda, the first dramatic feature film conceived and produced by Rwandans, is an extraordinary telling of the 1994 genocide that expands the common victim/perpetrator narrative to illuminate the complex fabric of life during the tragic event, and the even more complicated process of redemption in the truth and reconciliation process. – Courtesy of sundance.org

Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis 2010 U.S.A., United Kingdom
Winner of the World Cinema Cinematography Award for Documentary Filmmaking:

Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Documentary:
In 2009, U.S. Marines launched a major helicopter assault on a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. Immediately upon landing, the marines were surrounded by insurgents and attacked from all sides. Embedded in Echo Company, filmmaker Danfung Dennis captures the action with visceral immediacy. As he reveals the devastating impact a Taliban machine-gun bullet has on the life of 25-year-old Sergeant Nathan Harris, Dennis’s film evolves from being a war exposé to becoming a story of one man’s personal apocalypse. From the bloody battlefields of Afghanistan, to his home in North Carolina, Harris struggles to conquer the physical and mental fallout of war. A shell of the man he once was, will Harris ever return to the happy life he shared with his loving wife, Ashley?

Contrasting the horrors of the battlefield with the battle back home, Hell and Back Again is a transcendent film that comes full circle as it lays bare the true cost of war. – Courtesy of sundance.org

Animals Distract Me
Isabella Rossellini 2010
Isabelle Rossellini is also selected as head of jury at this year’s Berlin Film Festival:

A day in the life of animal-obsessed Isabella Rossellini as she visits with Mario Batali, Andre Leon Talley, Charles Darwin, and a host of urban creatures in New York City. – Courtesy of sundance.org

Meet the Artist:

Yet another great year for Sundance Film Festival, here is a wrap video of 10 awesome days of the festival.

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