The 2010 independent film starring Jennifer Lawrence that won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and was nominated for Best Picture was Winter’s Bone.
Directed by Debra Granik and adapted from Daniel Woodrell’s 2006 novel, the film follows 17-year-old Ree Dolly, played by Jennifer Lawrence, as she searches the Ozarks for her missing father. His disappearance threatens the family’s home because he used it as bail collateral.
Winter’s Bone premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Its quiet, austere style and portrayal of poverty helped it stand out among more conventional crime dramas.
At the 83rd Academy Awards, the film received four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress for Lawrence, Best Supporting Actor for John Hawkes, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It did not win Best Picture. It is sometimes confused with Lawrence’s later films Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, neither of which earned the same Sundance breakthrough distinction.