NZ-shot movie Slow West wins at Sundance

Michael Fassbender and Codi Smit-McPhee in Slow West

Slow West, the Michael Fassbender movie shot in the South Island last year has triumphed at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film has won the event's top international drama award, the World Cinema Drama Grand Jury Prize.

One of the three judges on the World Cinema panel was Taika Waititi. He was a presenter at the awards ceremony, giving the World Cinema Drama Directing prize to Alanté Kavaïté for The Summer of Sangaile.

Slow West stars Michael Fassbender in the 19th century American frontier story about a teenager (played by Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a journey to find the woman he loves accompanied by Fassbender's mysterious Silas.

Listed as a New Zealand production on the Sundance programme, it's the debut feature by Scotsman John Maclean, who, in a former life, was a member of the critically acclaimed group, the Beta Band before he turned to film-making and delivered a Bafta Award-winning short, Pitch Black Heist.

The film, shot in the country around Twizel, was co-funded by a mix of British backers and the New Zealand Film Commission and will be the third feature for Kiwi television veteran Rachel Gardner.

She is was one of two producers on the film with Brit Iain Canning who won a Best Picture Oscar for The King's Speech.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, about a pair of student filmmakers who befriend a girl with cancer, won both the U.S. dramatic audience award and the US grand jury prize at the festival

Thomas Mann, R.J. Cyler and Olivia Cooke lead the cast of the idiosyncratic tearjerker from Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Nick Offerman, Connie Britton and Molly Shannon also star.

The Wolfpack, Crystal Moselle's documentary about six movie-loving teenage boys isolated from society, won the grand jury prize for best documentary.

The 31st Sundance Film Festival wraps today New Zealand time.

Here's the full winner's list:

U.S. drama, grand jury prize: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

U.S. drama, audience award: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

U.S. drama, directing: The Witch, Robert Eggers

U.S. drama, special jury award for cinematography: Diary of a Teenage Girl, Brandon Trost

U.S. drama, special jury award for collaborative vision: Advantageous

U.S. drama, special jury award for editing: Dope, Lee Haugen

U.S. documentary, grand jury prize: The Wolfpack

U.S. documentary, audience award: Meru

U.S. documentary, directing: Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman

U.S. documentary, special jury award for social impact: 3 1/2 Minutes

U.S. documentary, special jury award for verite filmmaking: Western

U.S. documentary, special jury award for cinematography: Cartel Land, Matthew Heineman, Matt Porwoll

U.S. documentary, special jury award for breakout first feature: (T)error

Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize: The Stanford Prison Experiment

Waldo Salt screenwriting award: The Stanford Prison Experiment, Tim Talbott

World cinema drama, grand jury prize: Slow West

World cinema drama, audience award: Umrika

World cinema drama, directing: The Summer of Sangaile, Alante Kavaite

World cinema drama, special jury award for cinematography: Partisan, Germain McMicking

World cinema drama, special jury award for acting: The Second Mother, Regina Case and Camila Mardila

World cinema drama, special jury award for acting: Glassland, Jack Reynor

World cinema documentary, grand jury prize: The Russian Woodpecker

World cinema documentary, audience award: Dark Horse [not the NZ doco of the same name]

World cinema documentary, directing: Dreamcatcher, Kim Longinotto

World cinema documentary, special jury award for unparalleled access: The Chinese Mayor

World cinema documentary, special jury award for impact: Pervert Park

World cinema documentary, special jury award for editing: How to Change the World, Jim Scott