Sundance ends, ‘Fruitvale’ and ‘Blood Brother’ are big winners

After ten days, the 2013 Sundance Film Festival is officially over. This year, Fruitvale and Blood Brother are big winners, both taking home the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Drama and Documentary, respectively.

Fruitvale, directed by Ryan Coogler, has been referred to as “the next Beasts of the Southern Wild.” The movie is inspired by the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old who was shot in the back and killed by Oakland transit police on New Year’s Day in 2009.

The movie depicts his last twenty-four hours with "friends, enemies, families and strangers," reported Yahoo!. As Coogler described the film during his Sundance acceptance speech, “It’s about human beings and how we treat each other, how we treat people that we love and how we treat people that we don’t know.”

Blood Brother, directed by Steve Hoover, follows Rocky Braat, who travels to India to work with children with HIV, reported Entertainment Weekly. When he accepted the prize, Hoover said, “This means so much to so many kids."