Over the weekend, the work of several Sundance artists was recognized with Independent Spirit Awards and Academy Awards.

John Carney’s Once, which played at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film on Saturday. On Sunday, musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova accepted the Oscar for Best Original Song.

The Spirit Award for Best Screenplay was presented to The Savages, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and Jenkins is an alumnae of the Institute’s Feature Film Program, through which she developed her feature film debut, The Slums of Beverly Hills. For his performance in the film, Philip Seymour Hoffman received the Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

Two documentaries from the ’07 Festival received Spirit Awards. Laura Dunn’s The Unforeseen was given the Truer Than Fiction Award, while Dan Klores’ Crazy Love picked up the prize for Best Documentary.

The documentary short Freeheld, directed by Cynthia Wade, received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film. Freeheld played at the ’07 Festival.

In addition, two artists from the Sundance family received awards for work that did not screen at the Festival:

Jason Reitman’s Juno received the Spirit Award for Best Feature. Reitman served on the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Jury and has had four films screen at past Festivals, including the shorts Operation (1998), In God We Trust (2000), and Gulp (2001), and the feature Thank You for Smoking (2007).

Tilda Swinton received the Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance in Michael Clayton. Swinton has served on the Festival’s Competition Jury and appeared in several Sundance films. She produced and appeared in the 2008 World Cinema Competition documentary Derek, directed by Isaac Julien.