By: Anthony D’Alessandro
Sundance Institute has bestowed its first-ever Festival Favorite Award on Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster’s documentary Science Fair about nine high school students’ journey to the international science fair. They face off against 1,700 other brilliant teenagers from 78 countries for the sole title of Best in Fair.
Costantini, Foster, Jeffrey Plunkett and Fusion produced Science Fair which made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Science Fair was selected by audience votes from 123 feature films that screened during the festival which ran from Jan. 18-28. The Festival Favorite Award is the 29th and final recognition bestowed on this year’s Features, including juried prizes and category-specific Audience Awards.
John Cooper, Director, Sundance Film Festival, said in a statement, “Audiences responded to the hope in this film, and how it thoughtfully depicted a rising generation of innovators. The film was so engaging and inspiring that we felt it would delight audiences and be a strong contender for this award.”
Ballots distributed at each screening were counted as part of the Festival Favorite Award determination. Runners-up for the Festival Favorite, as ballots were counted, included Don Argott’s doc Believer starring Imagine Dragons’ front man Dan Reynolds and Morgan Neville’s Fred Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor?. There were also strong audience responses for Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation, Brett Haley’s Hearts Beat Loud, Jesse Peretz’s Juliet, Naked, and Elizabeth Chomko’s What They Had.
Source: Deadline