Afda alumni win Jury Award at Sundance Film Festival

Afda alumni, Cait Pansegrouw (producer), Elias Ribeiro (producer) and Pierre de Villiers (cinematographer) of the film This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection, directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, won the Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition category at the Sundance Festival 2020.

Pansegrouw and Ribeiro were also the producers of South Africa's official entry to the 2018 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Inxeba (The Wound).

The Sundance Awards ceremony marked the culmination of the 2020 festival, where 128 feature-length and 74 short films – selected from more than 15,100 submissions – were showcased in Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance, Utah, alongside work in the Indie Episodic category, panels, music and New Frontier.

This year's jurors, invited in recognition of their accomplishments in the arts, technical craft and visionary storytelling, deliberated extensively before presenting awards from the stage. This year's jurors were Rodrigo Garcia, Ethan Hawke, Dee Rees, Isabella Rossellini, Wash Westmoreland, Kimberly Reed, Rachel Rosen, Courtney Sexton, E Chai Vasarhelyi, Noland Walker, Haifaa Al Mansour, Wagner Moura, Alba Rohrwacher, Eric Hynes, Rima Mismar and Nanfu Wang. Gregg Araki was the sole Next juror.

"At Sundance, we believe art can break through noise and polarisation. In volatile times like these, democracy and storytelling aren't separate – they're inextricably linked," said Keri Putnam, Sundance Institute's executive director. "Congratulations to each and every one of tonight's winners, and to all the extraordinary artists who joined us at the festival."