The 2026 Sundance Film Festival closed its Utah chapter with a statement — intimate, political, and unmistakably human. As the festival prepares to relocate to Boulder next year, the final Park City edition crowned a defining winner: Josephine, Beth de Araújo’s devastating sophomore feature that swept both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.
It’s rare for juries and audiences to align so completely. When it happens, it usually signals more than a strong film — it marks a cultural moment. Josephine became that moment at Sundance 2026.
‘Josephine’: Innocence, Trauma, and the Cost of Silence
Directed and written by Beth de Araújo, Josephine centers on an eight-year-old girl who inadvertently witnesses a sexual assault in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Told through the child’s fractured understanding of adult violence, the film refuses sensationalism, opting instead for quiet devastation and moral reckoning.
Anchored by a remarkable performance from newcomer Mason Reeves, and supported by restrained, emotionally grounded turns from Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, Josephine approaches rape culture not as spectacle but as a social failure — one that thrives on discomfort and silence.
During a tearful acceptance speech, de Araújo directly confronted that silence, calling out rape culture as a systemic issue rooted in power, entitlement, and political tolerance. Her words cut through the ceremony with the same clarity as her film.
Critics responded in kind. The film currently holds a 97% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, positioning it as one of Sundance’s most critically embraced dramas in recent years.
Below is the complete and verified list of Sundance winners 2026, spanning U.S., World Cinema, Documentary, NEXT, Shorts, and Special Awards.
U.S. Dramatic Competition Winners
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Josephine / U.S.A.
(Director, Screenwriter, Producer: Beth de Araújo)
Directing Award
Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! – Josef Kubota Wladyka
(Recently acquired by Sony Pictures Classics)
Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast
The Friend’s House is Here / U.S.A., Iran
Special Jury Award for Debut Feature
Bedford Park / U.S.A.
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
Take Me Home / U.S.A.
U.S. Documentary Competition Winners
U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Nuisance Bear / U.S.A., Canada
Special Jury Award for Journalistic Excellence
Who Killed Alex Odeh?
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Barbara Forever – Matt Hixon
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary
Soul Patrol – J.M. Harper
Special Jury Award for Impact for Change
The Lake
Audience Awards
Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic
Josephine
Audience Award: U.S. Documentary
American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez
Audience Award: NEXT
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary
One In A Million
Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic
HOLD ONTO ME (Κράτα Με)
NEXT Awards
NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression
TheyDream
NEXT Innovator Award
The Incomer
World Cinema Dramatic Competition Winners
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic
Shame and Money
Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
Filipiñana
Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble
LADY
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
How to Divorce During the War – Andrius Blaževičius
World Cinema Documentary Competition Winners
World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
To Hold a Mountain
Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact
Birds of War
Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance
Everybody to Kenmure Street
Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary
One In A Million – Itab Azzam & Jack MacInnes
Shorts Program Awards
Short Film Grand Jury Prize
The Baddest Speechwriter of All
Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction
Crisis Actor
Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting
The Liars
Short Film Special Jury Award for Creative Vision
Paper Trail
Short Film Jury Award: Animation
Living with a Visionary
Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction
The Boys and the Bees
Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
Jazz Infernal
Other Major Sundance Awards
Sundance Institute Producers Award for Nonfiction
Who Killed Alex Odeh? – Dawne Langford
Sundance Institute | NHK Award
Verano – Leo Aguirre
2026 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
In The Blink of An Eye – Directed by Andrew Stanton
