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Last year’s Sundance Film Festival – one of the few in-person festivals of 2020 – saw a marked gain in Asian-American cinema with the win of Yoon Yuh-jung-starring “Minari”. This year, after six days and 73 feature films, Sundance sees less wins on the Asian and Asian-American cinematic front — and instead sees a turn of attention to the first day of the festival. Though three of the four Grand Jury Prizes awarded to films showcased on Sundance’s opening night, their presence must have been difficult to forget over the last six days — among them including “Flee,” a Denmark-France-Sweden-Norway animated documentary about an Afghan refugee.

Asian stories stood out in this year’s World Cinema: Documentary category, however. “Writing with Fire” (Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh) — a film exploring the accomplishments of a Dalit women-run news outlet in India — notably won the Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Impact for Change Award. Kurdish...

The war in Kosovo ended in 1999, but for many families, its losses and erasures created conflict that lasted deep into the new century, echoing on to this day. That bleak truism provides the backdrop for Blerta Basholli’s solid and sober-minded debut film, “Hive,” which mines a real-life story of perseverance against insurmountable prejudice for the small seams of comfort and hope it can yield.

Fahrije, played with dogged, sturdy restraint by Yllka Gashi, is one of perhaps a dozen women in her small Kosovan village whose husbands went missing during the war. Now years later, his body has still never been found; the authorities’ efforts to locate the missing have been frustratingly slow. Within the heavily patriarchal hierarchy of the country’s rural society, this places these maybe-widows in an impossible situation, especially when, like Fahrije, they have a family to care for. They are expected to wait in...

Ending earlier than usual in their hybrid virtual/physical edition of this year’s festival, Sundance Film Festival have now unveiled their award winners. Swept by Coda, Summer of Soul, and Hive, check out the list below, along with links to reviews, as well as our full coverage here.

Grand Jury Prizes

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, for Summer Of Soul / U.S.A. — During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America’s history lost – until now.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented to: Siân Heder, for Coda / U.S.A. — As a Coda – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family.

The Sundance Film Festival is just weeks away from launching on January 28, and this year it’s coming to your living room with a first-of-its-kind virtual edition. One of the films to look out for in the World Cinema section of the Dramatic competition is “Hive,” the debut film from Kosovo-born filmmaker Blerta Basholli. Inspired by a true story, “Hive” is an empowering look at a woman adrift but surviving after the disappearance of her husband. The feminist portrait, which is currently seeking distribution, premieres at the festival on January 31, with an encore screening the next day. IndieWire shares the exclusive first trailer for the film below.

Here’s the synopsis for the film, courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival:

In a tight-knit town in Kosovo, families struggle to make ends meet as they anxiously await news of husbands, fathers, and sons who were ripped away by the war. When...