Beasts of the Southern Wild and The House I Live In won the top awards at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, making them favourites for independent movie audiences in 2012.
Directed by Benh Zeitlin and set in impoverished Louisiana, Beasts of the Southern Wild picked up the jury prize for best drama as well as best cinematography with its poetic tale of the bond between a father and his daughter.
The documentary winner, The House I Live In, was one of many documentaries at Sundance 2012 that looked at a struggling America. It is an examination of the US's long war on drugs, and critiques US drug policies, its court system and prisons and their impact on minority groups.
Special juries of film industry professionals vote on winners, and those are considered the top prizes, but audiences also vote for their favourites.
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