PARK CITY, Utah — National Geographic’s “Sugarcane” directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie returned to the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to receive the Vanguard Award.

“Sugarcane” originally premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary for Directing Award. Now, it’s nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s Oscars.

On The Red Carpet spoke with NoiseCat, where he shared the exciting moment he found out he was an Oscar nominee.

“I got into the shower and then I got out of the shower, and I was an Oscar nominee when I got out, which was really crazy, and then I called my dad,” he said.

Kassie explained what the nomination meant to her, “It’s such an incredible slate of documentaries this year that are so important. We’re just so, so honored to be among them and to celebrate filmmakers who dedicate their lives to making art out of very difficult moments in the world.”

Kellen Quinn, a producer on the documentary, opened up about the moments leading up to the news of his Oscar nomination, describing the experience as a “community effort.”

“I was on a flight from London to Salt Lake trying desperately to connect my phone to the internet and not succeeding, and then my partner tried, and she didn’t succeed and then our neighbor in the aisle next to us very kindly loaned us her laptop, which died, and then we finally managed to watch on her phone so it was a whole community effort.”

“Sugarcane” is an investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indigenous residential school in Canada. The film has been recognized for its riveting portrayal of Native resilience and their way of life.

Kassie and NoiseCat shared how grateful they were for the support from the Sundance Institute.

“The Sundance honor kind of means more than anything to us, you know? This is an institution that helped us make the film, that has been there every step of the way,” Kassie said. NoiseCat added, “You know this festival has always told untold brave stories and this is one of the foundational stories of North America and this festival launched it into the world.”

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival continues through February 2.

“Sugarcane” is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of National Geographic, Disney+, Hulu and this ABC station.