The Jury, Audience, NEXT! and other special award-winners of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival were announced tonight at the Festival's Awards Ceremony hosted by Tim Blake Nelson (star of Flypaper which premiered in this year's Premieres section) in Park City, Utah. Highlights from the Awards Ceremony can be seen on the Festival website.

Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from four categories: U.S. Dramatic Competition, U.S. Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition and World Cinema Documentary Competition. All films in competition were also eligible for Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards as selected by Festival audiences. The U.S. Audience Awards presented by Acura were announced by Ray Liotta, and the World Cinema Audience Awards were announced by Joshua Leonard. Vera Farmiga announced the Best of NEXT! Audience Award.

Jury Prizes in Shorts Filmmaking were awarded to American and international short-form films on Tuesday, January 25. Other awards recognized at the ceremony included the inaugural Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, in recognition and support of emerging independent filmmakers from around the world, the Sundance Institute/NHK Award, created to honor and support emerging filmmakers with their next screenplays, and the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, awarded to a film which excels in addressing compelling topics in science or technology.

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival said, "Success at Sundance can be measured in terms of attendance, sponsorships, acquisitions, even the weather. Ultimately, it's about the films themselves - were they well received? Did they resonate with the audience enough to have a life beyond these 10 days? And this year, the answer is a resounding yes."

Added Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam, "For an artist to make it to the Festival among 10,000 submissions is an incredible achievement in his or her own right. We are so appreciative of all who shared their work with us this year, and we commend audiences and juries alike for selecting such a wide range of outstanding films."

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival Juries consisted of:

U.S. Documentary Competition: Jeffrey Blitz, Matt Groening, Laura Poitras, Jess Search, Sloane Klevin; U.S. Dramatic Competition: America Ferrera, Todd McCarthy, Timothy Orr, Kimberly Peirce, Jason Reitman; World Cinema Documentary Competition: José Padilha, Mette Hoffman Meyer, Lucy Walker; World Cinema Dramatic Competition: Susanne Bier, Joon-ho Bong, Rajendra Roy; Shorts Competition: Barry Jenkins, Kimberly Morgan, Sara Bernstein; Alfred P. Sloan Award: Jon Amiel, Paula Apsell, Sean Carroll, Clark Gregg.

For the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected, representing 29 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers, including 25 in competition. These films were selected from 3,812 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,943 U.S. and 1,869 international feature-length films. 95 films at the Festival were world premieres. This year the Festival's Short Film Program was comprised 81 short films from U.S. and international filmmakers selected from 6,467 submissions.

2011 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners:

The Audience Awards are presented to both a dramatic and documentary film in four competitions as voted by Sundance Film Festival audiences. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival Audience Awards are presented by Acura.

Directing Awards recognize excellence in directing for dramatic and documentary features.

The Excellence in Cinematography Awards honor exceptional cinematography in both dramatic and documentary categories:

A Special Jury Prize: Documentary was presented to Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, directed by Constance Marks, an inspirational film that crosses cultures and generations

As announced on Tuesday, the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to Brick Novax pt 1 and 2 (Director and screenwriter: Matt Piedmont). The International Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was given to Deeper Than Yesterday / Australia (Director and screenwriter: Ariel Kleiman). In addition, the jury awarded Honorable Mentions in Short Filmmaking to: Choke / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Michelle Latimer); Diarchy / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Ferdinando Cito Filomarino); The External World / Germany, Ireland (Director and screenwriter: David O'Reilly); The Legend of Beaver Dam / Canada (Director: Jerome Sable, screenwriters: Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion); Out of Reach / Poland (Director and screenwriter: Jakub Stozek); and Protoparticles / Spain (Director and screenwriter: Chema García Ibarra).

On Tuesday Sundance Institute and Mahindra announced the winners of the inaugural Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, in recognition and support of emerging independent filmmakers from around the world. The winning directors and projects are: Bogdan Mustata, Wolf from Romania; Ernesto Contreras, I Dream in Another Language from Mexico; Seng Tat Liew, In What City Does It Live? from Malaysia; and Talya Lavie, Zero Motivation from Israel.

Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) on Thursday announced Cherien Dabis, director of May in the Summer, as the winner of the Sundance Institute/NHK Award honoring and supporting emerging filmmakers.

Another Earth, written and directed by Mike Cahill, is the recipient of this year's Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character.