The presciently titled I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore pulled off a surprise victory at the 2017 Sundance film festival awards ceremony on Saturday (28 January), taking the grand jury prize for US dramatic feature. Often a pointer to future awards and commercial success – having been won in recent years by Whiplash, Fruitvale Station and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – the prize went to the comedy thriller directed by Macon Blair about a woman (Melanie Lynskey) out for revenge on the burglars who have stolen her computer.

However the equally influential audience award for the same category went to Crown Heights, a drama about a real-life miscarriage of justice: that of Colin Warner, who was mistakenly identified as the killer in a 1980 murder case, and spent nearly 19 years in jail before being released in 2001. Crown Heights is directed by Matt Ruskin and stars Keith Stanfield as Warner.

In the US documentary categories, Dina – described as an “unconventional romance between a quirky suburbanite and a door-greeter at Walmart” – took the grand jury prize, while the audience voted for Chasing Coral, about the global crisis facing coral reefs and part of Sundance’s The New Climate sidebar.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, current events dominated the ceremony, with award recipients lining up to criticise actions by president Trump. In the wake of the executive order banning travel from seven countries, Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam said: “I want to take a moment to acknowledge artists and documentary subjects from Muslim-majority countries who joined us at this year’s festival to share their work … We stand with you, and we stand with all people risking their lives for their values, or seeking refuge from violence or persecution who are now denied entry to our country.”

Syrian director Firas Fayyad, whose film Last Men in Aleppo won the world cinema documentary grand jury prize, said: “We are Syrian. We are not ashamed of this word. We do our best to fight for freedom of speech and for humanity and for justice. We do all this to change for the best, and I hope that people in the US can change. That they can fight like [we] fight.”

Full list of winners

US grand jury prize (dramatic) I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

Directing (US dramatic) Beach Rats

Screenwriting (US dramatic) Ingrid Goes West

US dramatic breakthrough director Maggie Betts, Novitiate

US dramatic best cinematography The Yellow Birds

US dramatic breakthrough performance Chanté Adams, Roxanne Roxanne

US grand jury prize (documentary) Dina

Directing (US documentary) The Force

US documentary Orwell award Icarus

US documentary inspirational filmmaking Step

US documentary editing Unrest

US documentary storytelling Strong Island

Alfred P Sloan feature film prize Marjorie Prime

World cinema grand jury prize (dramatic) The Nile Hilton Incident

Directing (world cinema dramatic) God’s Own Country

World cinema dramatic screenwriting Pop Aye

World cinema dramatic vision Free and Easy

World cinema dramatic cinematography Axolotl Overkill

World cinema grand jury prize (documentary) Last Men in Aleppo

Directing (world cinema documentary) Winnie

World cinema documentary vision Motherland

World cinema documentary cinematography Machines

World cinema documentary storytelling Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World

Audience award (US dramatic) Crown Heights

Audience award (US documentary) Chasing Coral

Audience award (world cinema dramatic) Sueño en Otro Idioma (I Dream in Another Language)

Audience award (world cinema documentary) Joshua: Teenager V Superpower

Audience Award (Next) Gook

Short film grand jury prize And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool

Short film jury award (US fiction) Lucia, Before and After

Short film jury award (international fiction) And the Whole Sky Fit in the Dead Cow’s Eye

Short film jury award (non-fiction) Alone

Short film jury award (animation) Broken – The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck

Short film cinematography Dadyaa – The Woodpeckers of Rotha

Short film editing Laps