Sundance 2018: Crowdpleaser ‘Science Fair’ Wins Inaugural Festival Favorite Award

The Sundance Institute announced the recipient of its first ever Festival Favorite Award today, which was given to the documentary “Science Fair.” The movie, which had its world premiere at the 2018 festival, is a crowdpleasing documentary about nine high school students from around the globe competing in The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, known as ISEF. Navigating rivalries, setbacks, and hormones on their quest to be named Best in Fair, they face off against 1,700 of the smartest and quirkiest teens from 78 different countries.

“Science Fair” was directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster. The duo previously worked together on the short film “The Naked Truth: Death by Fentanyl.” “Science Fair” is Costantini’s first feature length film. It was produced by Costantini, Foster, Jeffrey Plunkett and Fusion.

“Audiences responded to the hope in this film, and how it thoughtfully depicted a rising generation of innovators. The film was so engaging and inspiring that we felt it would delight audiences and be a strong contender for this award,” said Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper.

The two runners up were documentaries as well: “Believer,” an investigation of how the Mormon Church treats LGBTQ members, and the Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” from “20 Feet From Stardom” director Morgan Neville. “Science Fair” was selected by audience votes from the 123 feature films screened at the 2018 festival, which took place in Park City, Utah from January 18-28.

Watch the trailer for “Science fair” below.