Sundance 2010: The awards show, the winners and the wrap-up

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Sundance’s awards have a bit of that Golden Globes feel. Everyone knows everyone else. Winners in their acceptance speeches pour on the thank-yous to the body that handed them the awards. And, maybe most important, tongues loosen up as the alcohol flows freely.

Here are some of the more choice bits from the floor of the Racquet Club in Park City, where the awards were given out tonight.

* You know you’re at an informal ceremony when the evening’s emcee first appears doing a rap parody. David Hyde Pierce came out to name-check titles from the festival, as well as dropping names of actors like Ryan Gosling, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco and Kristen Stewart. He was then joined by festival director John Cooper, who also rapped and danced to huge cheers. Like we said, it’s informal.

* Don’t expect Mark Ruffalo to be invited to guest-host ‘At the Movies ‘ anytime soon. The bearded hyphenate was given a special jury prize for his directorial debut ‘Sympathy for Delicious’ despite poor critical response. ‘We’ve got our (butts) handed to us by the reviewers,’ he said, ‘and still we’re here.’

* Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fast becoming a Sundance darling. After breaking out last year with ‘(500) Days of Summer,’ he was back this year with a notable role in the unremarkable ‘Hesher.’ Hyde Pierce gave Gordon-Levitt, presenting an award to ‘Homewrecker’ for best film in the Next section, a shout-out for playing his young son in a short-lived sitcom called ‘The Powers That Be,’ saying it was ‘living proof that the flower of independent film blooms in the fertilizer of network television.’

* Later, accepting the audience prize for the U.S. Dramatic section, debut filmmaker Josh Radnor, better known as the star of TV’s ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ quipped back by thanking, ‘the people at my day job, for giving me time to do this. I come from the fertilizer of network television.’

* After Lucy Walker’s ‘Wasteland’ was announced as winner of the world cinema documentary audience prize, she ran from the back of the room to the stage. Visibly winded as she took the stage, she said ‘I was actually at the bar. I really was.’

* The evening took the most political turn when Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington took the stage to accept the grand jury prize for U.S. documentary for their Afghanistan picture ‘Restrepo.’ Hetherington dedicated the award to ‘the Restrepo generation,’ to the ‘men and women who come back to this country and become invisible.’ Junger added: ‘If our movie helped this country understand, we’d be incredibly honored by it.’

* Introducing the directing prize in U.S. documentary, presenter Morgan Spurlock noted, ‘Six years ago I won this prize and it changed my life forever. Hopefully it will do the same for this young man,’ before presenting the award to the gray-haired, veteran director Leon Gast for ‘Smash His Camera.’ ‘There must have been a mistake,’ said Gast as he took the stage.

* Introducing the final presenter of the night, Hyde Pierce tried to quiet the increasingly restless crowd by saying, ‘To those back at the bar, there is nothing you can get there that is as intoxicating as Parker Posey.’ The actress, presenting the grand jury prize for U.S. dramatic film, then said if the winner doesn’t find an audience, ‘I’m gonna’ stab myself,’ before announcing the winner as ‘Winter’s Bone.’

* ‘3 Backyards’ director Eric Mendelsohn, accepting a special directing prize, may not have been kidding when he said that last time he took the stage he had ‘so much Xanax’ in his system, adding ‘I promised myself I’d try to be more present’ this time. But he didn’t exactly go on to show himself to be a shrinking violet with his next remarks. ‘A lot of people in the press take potshots’ at Sundance for being either too big or small. ‘You go make your own festival and then bring it here. Robert Redford is singlehandedly doing work other governments do for filmmakers.’

-- Steven Zeitchik and Mark Olsen

For the complete list of winners, click past the jump.

Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic -- ‘Winter’s Bone,’ directed by Debra Granik

Grand Jury Prize: Documentary -- ‘Restrepo,’ directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic -- ‘Animal Kingdom,’ directed by David Michod

World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary -- ‘The Red Chapel,’ directed by Mads Brugger

Audience Award: Documentary -- ‘Waiting for Superman,’ directed by Davis Guggenheim

Audience Award: Dramatic -- ‘happythankyoumoreplease,’ directed by Josh Radnor

World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary -- ‘Wasteland,’ directed by Lucy Walker

World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic -- ‘Contracorriente’ (Undertow), directed by Javier Fuentes-Leon

Best of Next -- ‘Homewrecker,’ directed by Todd Barnes and Brad Barnes

The Directing Award: Documentary -- ‘Smash His Camera,’ directed by Leon Gast

The Directing Award: Dramatic -- ‘3 Backyards,’ directed and written by Eric Mendelsohn

World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary -- ‘Space Tourists,’ directed by Christian Frei

World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic -- ‘Southern District,’ directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award -- ‘Winter’s Bone,’ written by Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini

World Cinema Screenwriting Award - ‘Southern District,’ written by Juan Carlos Valdivia

Documentary Editing Award -- ‘Joan Rivers; A Piece Of Work,’ edited by Penelope Falk

World Cinema Documentary Editing Award -- ‘A Film Unfinished,’ edited by Joelle Alexis

Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary -- ‘The Oath,’ shot by Kirsten Johnson and Laura Poitras

Excellence in Cinematography Award: Dramatic -- ‘Obselidia,’ shot by Zak Mulligan

World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary -- ‘His & Hers,’ shot by Kate McCullough and Michael Lavelle

World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic -- ‘The Man Next Door,’ directed by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic for Breakout Performance -- Tatiana Maslany, ‘Grown Up Movie Star’

World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary -- ‘Enemies of the People,’ directed by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath

Special Jury Prize: Documentary -- ‘Gasland,’ directed by Josh Fox

Special Jury Prize: Dramatic -- ‘Sympathy for Delicious,’ directed by Mark Ruffalo

Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking -- ‘Drunk History: Douglass & Lincoln,’ directed by Jeremy Konner

Jury Prize in International Short Filmmaking -- ‘The Six Dollar Fifty Man,’ directed by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland

Alfred P. Sloan Prize -- ‘Obselidia,’ directed by Diane Bell