Video artist and Delhi-based filmmaker Shanuak Sen was awarded the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for his documentary film All That Breathes at the just concluded Sundance Film Festival.

The film is set against the darkening backdrop of Delhi’s apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the Black Kite.

The India-UK Co-Production film (Producers: Aman Mann, Teddy Leifer) received support from the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and a development grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund in 2019.

This is for the first time an Indian filmmakers has won the top prize at the World Cinema Documentary Competition Sundance Film Festival.

The Grand Jury Prizes went to Nikyatu Jusu‘s feature directorial debut “Nanny,” for the coveted U.S. Dramatic title, along with Christine Choy’s “The Exiles” for U.S. Documentary, Shaunak Sen’s “All That Breathes” for World Cinema Documentary, and Alejando Loayza Grisi’s “Utama” for World Cinema Dramatic.

The Audience Awards were earned by U.S. documentary “Navalny” and Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” for U.S. Dramatic. “Navalny” also won the Festival Favorite Award.

Sundance Film Festival 2022 Juror Emilie Bujès said: “This poetic film delivers an urgent political story while constructing a singular and loving portrait of protagonists resisting seemingly inevitable ecological disaster – with humorous touches punctuated by unsentimental depiction of the animal kingdom. For maintaining its suspenseful tension when portraying the interior struggles of its characters and the contradictions in spirituality and materialism they confront, we present the [World Cinema] Grand Jury Prize to All That Breathes.”

“This year’s entire program has proven that no matter the context, independent storytelling remains a pivotal tool in expanding critical dialogues, and these stories will and must be shared,” Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente said at the virtual introducing the awards ceremony.

Sundance Festival Director Tabitha Jackson said: “This year’s festival expressed a powerful convergence; we were present, together, as a community connected through the work. And it is work that has already changed those who experienced it.”

Filmmaker Shanuank (younger brother of National Award Filmmaker Raja Sen) is a video artist and film scholar based in Delhi. Cities of Sheep (2016), his first feature length documentary, was shown at various major international film festivals (European premiere at DOK Leipzig) and won six international documentary awards.

Shaunak also received the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s Films Division of India Fellowship (2013), theSaraiCSDS Digital Media fellowship (2014), Pro Helvetia residency, Switzerland (2016), the Charles Wallace Grant, as visiting scholar at Cambridge University (2018), the IDFA Bertha Fund (2019), the Sundance Documentary Grant (2019) and the Catapult Film Fund (2020).