Directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe’s doc about Jacinda Ardern is a timely and bracingly intimate portrait of a woman in power, examining the left-wing prime minister’s work and life choices during her five-year term as New Zealand’s galvanizing head of government.

The U.S. documentary audience award went to “André is an Idiot,” a life-affirming film about dying of colon cancer. Other audience picks were “Prime Minister,” about former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and “DJ Ahmet,” a coming-of-age film about a 15-year-old boy in North Macedonia.

Among the audience awards, Twinless won in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and André Is an Idiot topped the U.S. Documentary Competition. DJ Ahmet collected the audience award for World Cinema Dramatic Competition, with Prime Minister prevailing for the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Grand Jury Prizes went to Atropia (U.S. Dramatic Competition), Seeds (U.S. Documentary Competition), Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), and Cutting Through Rocks (اوزاک یوللار) (World Cinema Documentary Competition). The NEXT Innovator Award presented by Adobe was given to Zodiac Killer Project.

Awards for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival were handed out on Friday morning, with the Dylan O’Brien-fronted dark comedy “Twinless” taking home the audience award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category.

“Storytelling is important, part of human continuity,” Sundance interim CEO Amanda Kelso said at the top of the ceremony, quoting its founder Robert Redford.