“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” wins top prize at Sundance Film Fest

PanARMENIAN.Net - “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” won the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic film at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival’s award ceremony on Saturday, the festival’s top prize, after also winning the Audience Award, TheWrap reports.

“My love goes out to the entire cast and crew,” director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon told the audience during his second appearance on stage, as the coming-of-age drama also won U.S. Dramatic Audience Award.

“Earl and the Dying Girl” is based on a novel by Jesse Andrews, who wrote the screenplay, too.

Thomas Mann (“Project X”) leads the cast of the tearjerker as a high school student whose mother forces him to befriend a classmate, played by Olivia Cooke, who’s been diagnosed with leukemia. RJ Cyler, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, Jon Bernthal and Molly Shannon co-star.

Fox Searchlight bought the rights to the festival favorite earlier this week, and plans on releasing it later this year.

Indian Paintbrush’s Steven Rales produced the film with Dan Fogelman and Jeremy Dawson, while Nora Skinner served as executive producer.