Sundance prizes: top honors go to 'Weiner,' 'Sonita'

Night of celebrations caps 2016 edition of the festival

Josh Kriegman, co-director of "Weiner," ascends the stage to accept the Grand Jury Prize in the US Documentary Competition at Sundance. Photo by Matt Carey

There's been a sad trajectory to the once-budding political career of Anthony Weiner. It got an interesting post-script Saturday night as a new documentary about him won the Grand Jury Prize in the US Documentary Competition.

Weiner co-directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Stienberg accepted the honor, presented at an entertaining ceremony in Park City, Utah hosted by filmmaker Taika Waititi.

Sonita, the story of a teenage Afghani rapper living illegally in Iran, won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami directed the film. Both the filmmaker and her subject were on hand for the awards ceremony.

Teenage rapper Sonita, subject of the Sundance award-winning documentary "Sonita," at the festival awards ceremony in Park City, Utah. Photo by Matt Carey

Among the other documentary prize winners:

>Jim: The James Foley Story, directed by Brian Oakes, received the Audience Award: US Documentary
>Life, Animated, directed by Roger Ross Williams, won the directing award in the US Doc category
>All These Sleepless Nights, directed by Michal Marczak, won the directing award in the World Cinema Doc category
>We Are X, directed by Stephen Kijak, won for editing
>Trapped, directed by Dawn Porter, won for social impact
>Kate Plays Christine, directed by Robert Greene, won for writing
>The Bad Kids, directed by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, won for verité filmmaking

Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel, co-directors of When Two Worlds Collide, received a Special Jury Award for "Debut Feature" in the World Cinema Documentary category. 

The Land of the Enlightened won for cinematography in the World Cinema Documentary category.

I will write much more about Sundance, once I get back to LA! In the meantime, here are some photos from the awards ceremony: