John Cassavetes Award given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000; award given to the writer, director and producer. Executive Producers are not awarded.

Credits

Writer/Director: Sebastián Silva

Writer: Pedro Peirano

Producer: Jacob Wasserman

Synopsis

Writer-director Sebastián Silva’s Sundance hit Rotting in the Sun is a darkly funny and refreshingly audacious meta-comedy that skewers the business of filmmaking and our self-obsessed culture. While unwinding at a Mexican gay beach town, depressed director Sebastián Silva meets gregarious Instagram influencer Jordan Firstman (both playing versions of themselves), and Sebastián reluctantly agrees to collaborate on an upcoming project. But when Jordan arrives back in Mexico City, Sebastián is nowhere to be found. Jordan dances, sleeps and snorts his way through the city as he embarks on a quasi-detective journey to get to the bottom of Sebastián’s disappearance.