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When a society or community is steeped in rigid values and customs, it often creates a stifling environment where a tyrannical attitude becomes the norm, and individual expression and critical thinking are suppressed. This atmosphere of enforced conservatism can permeate all aspects of life, from personal relationships to family dynamics. Georgi M. Unkovski‘s Dj Ahmet, a warm-hearted film, offers a gentle counterpoint to such restrictive environments, championing the importance of cultural expression and the joy of individual freedom. It suggests that there is room for individual spirit and the power of will to uplift and connect even within seemingly traditional communities.

Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy, lives in a North Macedonian village with his younger brother, Naim, and their strict father. They are a family of shepherds, earning their living by selling sheep’s milk cheese. Since their mother’s death, Naim has stopped speaking, and their father seeks help from a local healer.

A still from Atropia by Hailey Gates, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Atropia starring Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner earned the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic Competition award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and Seeds was named the U.S. Documentary Competition winner. The 2025 winners were announced today during a ceremony held at The Ray Theatre in Park City.

Additional Grand Jury Prize winners include Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) and Cutting Through Rocks. Audience Awards went to Twinless (U.S. Dramatic Competition), André is an Idiot (U.S. Documentary Competition), DJ Ahmet (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), Prime Minister (World Cinema Documentary Competition), and East of Wall (Next).

“We congratulate all of our filmmakers and award winners on a successful 2025 Sundance Film Festival and thank them for the stories they shared with our audiences,” stated Amanda Kelso, Acting CEO, Sundance Institute.

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival awards were announced today at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.

See the list of 2025 winners below, and congrats to all the winners.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Atropia (USA) – Hailey Gates

Directing Award

Ricky (USA) – Rashad Frett

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

Sorry, Baby (USA) – Eva Victor

Special Jury Award for Acting

Twinless (USA) – Dylan O’Brien

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney appear in Twinless by James Sweeney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Greg Cotten.

Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble

Plainclothes – Carmen Emmi

Audience Award

Twinless – James Sweeney

U.S. Documentary Competition

Grand Jury Prize

Seeds (USA) – Brittany Shyne

Directing Award

The Perfect Neighbor (USA) – Geeta Gandbhir

Special Jury Award

Life After (USA) – Reid Davenport

Special Jury Award for Archival Storytelling

Selena y Los Dinos (USA) – Isabel Castro

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award...

As the Sundance Film Festival heads into its final weekend, the Park City event handed out trophies this morning to this year’s best. See the full list below.

Hailey Gates’ war satire Atropia took the marquee U.S. Grand Jury Prize for dramatic features. Alia Shawkat stars as an aspiring actress in a military role-playing facility who falls in love with a soldier (Callum Turner) cast as an insurgent, but their unsimulated emotions threaten to derail the performance.

The Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic went to Twinless, James Sweeney’s film about two young men (Dylan O’Brien and Sweeney) who meet in a twin bereavement support group and form an unlikely bromance.

Georgi M. Unkovski’s DJ Ahmet won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and also nabbed the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. It follows Ahmet (Arif Jakup), a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in...

The first time 15-year-old Ahmet (Arif Jakup) smiles broadly on-screen lives up to the cliché that someone’s infectious grin can light up a room. Amid the bright colors of an Edm festival happening in the middle of the forest, the teen with wistful eyes surrenders to an upbeat tune and to the crowd of young people around him. By that point, most viewers will already have been irremediably disarmed by “DJ Ahmet,” Georgi M. Unkovski’s music-soaked, delightfully humorous and unpretentiously stylish debut set in a remote North Macedonian village.

But that moment of enjoyment is only a brief, illusory respite from Ahmet’s laborious responsibilities herding sheep and caring for his kid brother Naim (Agush Agushev), the picture of innocence and adorableness, who hasn’t spoken since their mother died. From the onset, Unkovski introduces a rich soundtrack that mixes modern English-language songs with tracks specific to the region,...

Living in a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, the titular 15-year-old boy in “DJ Ahmet” desperately wants two things he cannot have: to share music with others and to be with the girl next door, who is already promised to someone else. Director Georgi M. Unkovski knows a thing or two about wanting something that feels impossible, having gone through multiple funding and production frustrations in the five-year journey to make his feature debut, premiering as part of Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Speaking exclusively with Variety ahead of the festival, the Macedonian writer-director, whose work has been featured in over 200 international festivals, HBO and MTV, says he first had the idea for the feature around the time he screened his short film “Sticker” at Sundance in 2020. “We got the first round of funding at the end of the year but only finished funding the film three months ago,...

Exclusive: Films Boutique has picked up international sales rights to Georgi M. Unkovski’s feature debut DJ Ahmet, which has just been selected to world premiere in Sundance’s World Dramatic Competition.

The North Macedonian writer-director will return to Park City where his short film Sticker premiered in 2020.

The Turkish and Macedonian-language film follows Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, who finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love — a girl already promised to someone else.

Pic is a coproduction between North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia and Croatia. Starring are Arif Jakup, Agush Agushev, Dora Akan Zlatanova, Aksel Mehmet, Selpin Kerim, Atila Klince.

Producers are Ivan Unkovski, Ivana Shekutkoska. Co-producers are Michal Kracmer, Veronika Kuhrova, Igor Kecman, Jelena Mitrovic, Katarina Prpic, Vladimir Anastasov and Angela Nestorovska.

Films Boutique said today: “Love at first...