Sundance 2013: Sundance Unveils Its Crop of Top Shorts

Getty Images

PARK CITY -- The Sundance Institute unveiled the jury prizes and honorable mentions in short filmmaking for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

our editor recommends

Sundance 2013: eOne Closes Deal for 'We Are What We Are' (Exclusive)

Sundance 2013: Winners of the Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Awards Announced

Sundance 2013: Paul Rudd on 'Prince Avalanche' and the David Gordon Green Experience (Video)

Sundance 2013: Rafel Duran Torrent wins Focus Forward Filmmaker Competition Grand Jury Prize

This year's Short Film program included 65 short films selected from a record 8,102 submissions.

Twelve short films from the 2013 Festival are featured on the Screening Room, a YouTube channel curated by the Sundance Institute. After the festival, the Institute will continue to curate the Screening Room, highlighting short films each week.

PHOTOS: Sundance 2013: 10 Hot Films Hitting Park City

“Our Short Film program this year represented a broad range of extraordinary short filmmaking talent, showcasing the diverse approaches to storytelling that one can achieve with limited time," said Trevor Groth, director of programming for the festival. "The short film awards further distinguish those that pushed the medium in new directions and affected audiences in powerful and lasting ways."

The awards were presented at a ceremony Jan. 22 in Park City. Recipients also will be honored at the festival’s feature film awards ceremony, hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on Jan. 26.

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to:

The Whistle/Poland (Director: Grzegorz Zariczny) -- Marcin, a lowest-leagues football referee who lives in a small town near Krakow, dreams of better times. At his mother’s urging, he decides to change his life and find himself a girlfriend and a better job.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to:

Whiplash/U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Damien Chazelle) -- An aspiring drummer enters an elite conservatory’s top jazz orchestra.

The Short Film Jury Award International Fiction was presented to:

The Date/Finland (Director and screenwriter Jenni Toivoniemi) -- Tino’s manhood is put to the test in front of two women when he has to host a date for Diablo, the family’s stud cat.

The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to:

Skinningrove/U.S.A. (Director: Michael Almereyda) -- Photographer Chris Killip shares unpublished images chronicling time spent among the fiercely independent residents of a remote English fishing village.

The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to:

Irish Folk Furniture/Ireland (Director: Tony Donoghue) -- In Ireland, old hand-painted furniture is often associated with hard times, with poverty, and with a time many would rather forget. In this animated documentary, 16 pieces of traditional folk furniture are repaired and returned home.

A Short Film Special Jury Award for Acting was presented to:

Joel Nagle in Palimpsest/U.S.A. (Director: Michael Tyburski, screenwriters: Michael Tyburski, Ben Nabors) -- A successful house tuner provides clients with a unique form of therapy that examines subtle details in their living spaces.

A Short Film Special Jury Award was presented to:

Until the Quiet Comes/U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kahlil Joseph) -- Shot in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles, this film deals with themes of violence, camaraderie and spirituality through the lens of magical realism.