And then they gave out the toys

I’ve been home from Park City for going on five days now, and I’m still tired. I fall in bed each night and sleep without waking, which is a welcome change to how I usually spend the night – tossing, turning, worrying about things that can’t be solved hardly at all much less at 4 in the morning. So I guess I can thank Sundance for more than simply putting on a festival worth my time.

Speaking of which, Mary Pat and I ended up seeing several of the award-winners at both Sundance and Slamdance , leading off with “Why We Fight,” which was named Sundance’s best documentary. We also saw the audience award winners, “Hustle & Flow” for feature (the film also won the award for best cinematography) and “Shake Hands With the Devil” for documentary. My favorite documentary, Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man,” won the $20,000 Alfred P. Sloan Award. “The Devil and Daniel Johnston ” won best director for a documentary for Jeff Feuerzeig, while special jury prizes went to Simone Bitton’s “The Wall” for documentary and Jorge Gaggero ‘s “Live-in Maid” for world cinema. And the short “Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story” earned special recognition.

Up the street at Slamdance, which dubs its prizes “Sparkies,” we saw both documentary winners: grand jury winner “Abel Raises Cain” and honorable mention “La Sierra.” We also saw “Frozen,” which won both runner up for best narrative feature and scored the prize for best cinematography .

And I think that’s the final word that I’ll have about my Park City sojourn of 2005. Unless, of course, I change my mind.