Sundance Short Film Selection ‘Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing’ Wins Grand Jury Prize
Theo Panagopoulos’ The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing, a short film following a Scotland-based filmmaker of Palestinian descent on a journey to reclaim footage of a rare film archive of Palestinian wildflowers, won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
On Tuesday, Sundance Institute revealed all the trophy winners to emerge from the fest’s short film program during a ceremony and party presented by Vimeo at Park City venue The Park. Shorts awards are doled out five days before the conclusion of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which continues through Feb. 2 (both in person and online). In handing out the top prize, the jury — comprised of Kaniehtiio Horn, Maggie Mackay and Kibwe Tavares — called The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing “a timely, urgent, and beautiful examination of colonialism and a moving reclaiming of history through the use of archival footage.”
Additional jury awards were presented to Jazmin Garcia’s Trokas Duras (U.S. fiction), Chheangkea’s Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites (international fiction), Christopher Radcliff’s We Were The Scenery (nonfiction), and Natalia León’s Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado (animation). Two special jury awards were also handed out including a trophy for animation directing to May Kindred-Boothby’s The Eating of an Orange and one for nonfiction directing to Loren Waters’ Tiger.
“Filmmakers bring us their distinctive visions from around the world, whether for entertainment or enlightenment and often both,” praised Mike Plante, a Sundance senior programmer for short films. “We aim to bring new audiences to their work, especially as most of the filmmakers are attending Sundance for the first time. Congratulations to the award winners, whose films demonstrate the powerful artistic talent at the festival.”
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Plot descriptions of winning films and the jury citations for each can be found here. Most award-winning short films are available from Jan. 30 through Feb. 2 for audiences to view from home.
