The honor is for a short documentary about someone close to Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n
(Chris Pizzello | AP) NBA basketball player Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors poses during the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in Park City.<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry will have a new trophy to put with his basketball accolades: A movie he co-directed won the top prize for short films at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n
Curry and co-director Ben Proudfoot were named winners of Sundance\u2019s Grand Jury Prize for short films for their documentary \u201cThe Baddest Speechwriter of All,\u201d in a ceremony Tuesday night in Park City.<\/p>\n
Curry was expected to be in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night, when his Golden State Warriors play the Utah Jazz in the Delta Center.<\/p>\n
The short documentary spotlights Clarence B. Jones, speechwriter for the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In the film, Jones, now 93, reflects on his time working with King.<\/p>\n
(Brandon Somerhalder | Sundance Institute) Dr. Clarence B. Jones, who wrote speeches for Martin Luther King Jr., is the subject of the short documentary “The Baddest Speechwriter of All,” directed by Ben Proudfoot and Stephen Curry. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for short films at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n
A three-person jury \u2014 director A.V. Rockwell (\u201cA Thousand and One\u201d); Liv Constable-Maxwell, publishing director of the publisher Mack; and actor Martin Starr (\u201cSilicon Valley,\u201d \u201cSpider-Man: Homecoming\u201d) \u2014 chose the award winners among 54 titles. Most of those films can be viewed on the festival\u2019s online portal, Thursday through Sunday.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the jury said the film \u201cimplores us to take action with a message that is timeless and timely. Through the eyes of its subject, we find one of the most important moments in modern history has a new perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
The jury also called the film a \u201cportrait of a strong willed, hilarious, compassionate man, and the instrumental role he played in kicking ass, nonviolently, against division and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curry\u2019s co-director, Proudfoot, has won two Academy Awards for his short documentaries, \u201cThe Queen of Basketball\u201d in 2022 and \u201cThe Last Repair Shop\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n
Here are the other award winners among Sundance\u2019s short films:<\/p>\n
Jury Award: U.S. Fiction \u2022 \u201cCrisis Actor,\u201d directed by Lily Platt.<\/p>\n
Jury Award: International Fiction \u2022 \u201cJazz Infernal\u201d (Canada), directed by Will Niava.<\/p>\n
Jury Award: Nonfiction \u2022 \u201cThe Boys and the Bees,\u201d directed by Arielle C. Knight.<\/p>\n
Jury Award: Animation \u2022 \u201cLiving With a Visionary,\u201d directed by Stephen P. Neary.<\/p>\n
Special Jury Award for Creative Vision \u2022 \u201cPaper Trail,\u201d directed by Don Hertzfeldt.<\/p>\n
Special Jury Award for Acting \u2022 Noah Roja and Filippo Carrozza, for \u201cThe Liars\u201d (Argentina), directed by Eduardo Braun Costa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The honor is for a short documentary about someone close to Martin Luther King Jr. (Chris Pizzello |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[77056,7,77057,423,6,77058,77059,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-566788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-2026-sundance-film-festival","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-dr-clarence-b-jones","11":"tag-jazz","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-the-baddest-speechwriter-of-all","14":"tag-u-s-shorts","15":"tag-utah","16":"tag-utah-jazz","17":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115974136353535404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}