It’s Business Not as Usual at Sundance Fest : Well-Liked ‘McMullen,’ ‘Crumb’ Take Top Honors

In a departure from tradition as unexpected as it was appreciated, the Sundance Film Festival gave its top awards not to well-meaning, distant works but rather to two films that delighted audiences here and have a good chance of repeating that success in the real world.

“The Brothers McMullen,” written, directed, co-produced and starring 26-year-old Edward Burns, won the dramatic half of the Grand Jury Prize. Taking documentary honors was “Crumb,” director Terry Zwigoff’s extraordinary examination of the life and art of underground cartoonist R. Crumb.

A reality-based romantic comedy about the tangled loves of three Irish Catholic brothers living out on Long Island, “McMullen’s” offhanded charm and engaging naturalism survived the rigors of shooting over a long period.

“We made a no-budget feature over the course of eight months shooting on weekends because we had something to say, and at a couple of points we didn’t think we’d get to finish this film, we thought no one would see it,” said an emotional Burns, who made sure to thank his mother, “who made me watch ‘Annie Hall.’ ” Blown up from 16-millimeter and costing a reported $28,000, “McMullen” earned another reward: It will be one of the first items distributed by 20th Century Fox’s new Searchlight division.

“Crumb” came into Sundance with enough honors already attached, including an appearance at the New York Film Festival and a deal with Sony Classics, that people kept telling Zwigoff, who’d put nine years into this remarkably candid and provocative documentary, that he had little chance of winning anything here.

But not only did “Crumb” capture the Grand Jury Prize, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, it also won the cinematography award for documentaries for Maryse Alberti. “I don’t get a Mercedes with this, do I?” Zwigoff asked when he picked up his share. “I’ll take a used one.”

The dramatic competition’s other well-received film, “Living in Oblivion,” won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Tom DiCillo and his dead-on and deft look at the worst day any independent director ever had. “This screenplay started as a drunken giggle, something written in two days,” said a disbelieving DiCillo, whose picture went to Sony Classics near the festival’s close.

The audience award for dramatic films, voted by the festival-goers, was Saturday night’s biggest surprise. It went to Kayo Hatta’s elegiac “Picture Bride,” the story of a Japanese woman who emigrates to Hawaii to marry a man she knows only through his photograph.

The documentary audience award was split between a pair of strong films that had completely different sensibilities. Douglas Keeve’s “Unzipped,” acquired by Fine Line during the festival, is a cinema-verite look at fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. It is as consistently amusing as its subject, the kind of glib monologuist who can watch “Nanook of the North” and decide he wants to design nothing but fur pants.

“Ballot Measure 9,” on the other hand, is a passionate and exceptionally well-made piece of advocacy filmmaking. Directed by Heather MacDonald and concentrating on Oregon’s 1992 anti-gay ballot initiative, it exposes both the horrific nature of homophobia and the heartening way grass-roots organizing made a critical difference in defeating the measure.

Aside from “Crumb,” the only film to win two awards was Rebecca Miller’s dramatic debut, “Angela,” the story of a pair of little girls who have trouble separating fantasy from reality. Beautifully made enough to gain Miller the Filmmakers Trophy, voted on by the other competing directors, it also gave Ellen Kouras the cinematography award. Kouras, who previously won the prize for “Swoon” and also shot “Unzipped,” is rapidly becoming the gold standard for photographing an independent film.

Taking the Filmmakers Trophy for documentary was “Black Is . . . Black Ain’t,” the last film by Marlon T. Riggs, who died last year of AIDS at age 37. Sensitively completed by his collaborators, this idiosyncratic examination of African American identity uses Riggs’ experimental style and interviews with people such as Angela Davis and Cornel West to make its points powerfully.

Two other films won documentary awards. “When Billy Broke His Head . . . and Other Tales of Wonder,” a personal look at disability by directors David E. Simpson and Billy Golfus, took the Freedom of Expression award, and the jury gave special recognition to Michel Negroponte’s “Jupiter’s Wife,” which details the filmmaker’s increasing obsession with a homeless woman who lives in Central Park and the unsettling results of his investigations.

The dramatic folks gave two jury recognition awards for direction. One went to Matthew Harrison for “Rhythm Thief,” a bursting-with-attitude example of urban guerrilla filmmaking, the other to James Mangold for “Heavy,” a deliberately paced, almost wistful story of the changes that come into the life of an overweight and awkward cook.

This year, for the first time, there was special recognition in the Latin American cinema award, which was given to “Eagles Don’t Hunt Flies,” from Colombia, with special mention going to Cuba’s “Strawberry and Chocolate.” There were also special recognition in short filmmaking prizes, this year going to “The Salesman and Other Adventures” and “Tom’s Flesh,” with honorable mention to “Nonnie and Alex” and the delightful “Trevor,” about a boy’s obsession with Diana Ross and other things.