Comedy-drama movie The Miseducation of Cameron Post has won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The film is the second directorial offering from Desiree Akhavan and is adapted from a 2012 novel by Emily M Danforth. It stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane.
Set in 1993, it concerns a teenage girl – Cameron Post (Grace Moretz) – who is caught having a sexual encounter with a prom queen. Her legal guardians, her aunt and uncle, then force her to attend a pray-the-gay-away therapy center.
Jury member Octavia Spencer (recently Oscar nominated for her role in The Shape of Water) said the movie, ‘effortlessly displayed and represented a broad array of society struggling for acceptance.’
‘Still reeling’
Grace Moretz posted a message about the win to her Instagram. She said, ‘Still reeling over the fact we got to accept the #GrandJuryPrize for Us Dramatic movie in competition.
‘Thank you to Sundance. Thank you to the Jurors who voted, this is a movie of such importance that deserves to be seen to shed light unto the realities of #SexualConversionTherapy so proud of all of us and so proud of this beautiful beautiful movie. I cannot WAIT for you all to see it.’
The film did not have a distribution deal going into the festival, but its win makes it almost certain it will get a theater release. Other recent winners of the prize have included Whiplash and Beasts of the Southern Wild.
The ten-day Sundance festival concluded Sunday in Park City, Utah. Other award winners included Burder. The movie, about a former Klu Klux Klansman who turns against his beliefs, picked up the Audience Award.
Watch an interview with the cast and director of The Miseducation of Cameron Post below.
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