Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale A Huge Hit At Sundance

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Fruitvale, a film directed by 26-year-old Ryan Coogler, and starring Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer, was a huge hit at the Sundance Film Festival. People are calling it this year’s Beasts of The Southern Wild, which seems unnecessary for a film so successful on its own merit.

This January, Fruitvale became the first Sundance film to win both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic film since Precious debuted in 2009.

The film is based on a true story in which Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black San Francisco Bay Area resident, was shot by Fruitvale BART officers in the station on New Year’s Day in 2009. Onlookers recorded the event with cell phones and posted videos to the web.  The footage depicted Oscar Grant lying prostrated on the ground, yet being accused of resisting arrest before he was shot through his back. He died from the wound hours later. The incident incited protests and riots. You can read about the BART shooting in this Wikipedia article.

In the film, Coogler chose to focus on Oscar Grant’s last day of life. Check out a short video clip where director Ryan Coogler discusses making Fruitvale. 

Embedded below is the 2013 Sundance Awards Ceremony. To see the Fruitvale director win and claim the award, scroll to about 51:20.

It this something you think will get Oscar nominations once its released nationwide?

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