A comedy film about cancer won the top prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

The American psychological comedy "Me, Earl and My Dying Girlfriend" won the two biggest awards at the 31st Sundance Independent Film Festival - the "Grand Jury" and the "Audience Awards".

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a psychological comedy film by Alfonso Goméz-Rejón, who previously directed several episodes of the television series American Horror Story. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, centering on a teenage film student who reluctantly befriends a girl with terminal cancer.

The Guardian commented: “This is a psychological story about a tragic situation, but it's handled humorously with a series of witty and clever dialogues from the young director. This humanistic work is reminiscent of 500 Days of Summer and The Fault in Our Stars.” Beyond its clever script, the film showcases the young filmmaker's strong personal touch with its wide-angle cinematography and unusual panning shots.

Director Alfonso Goméz-Rejón and lead actress Olivia Cooke, who played the girl with cancer in "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl".

Receiving both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award in the American film category, director Alfonso Goméz-Rejón emotionally said: “I share my love with the entire film crew. This film is about the loss of youth, but I want to honor the beautiful life of a wonderful man, my father.”

The filmmaker, who was once Martin Scorsese's assistant, further shared: "The premiere of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl at Sundance means a lot to an introspective and camera-loving person like me. To use cinematic equipment to find myself, to tell a personal story, and then have that story screened at an independent film festival like this is a dream come true for me."

The film "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" is highly praised for its unusual use of wide-angle shots.

In the documentary category, The Wolfpack won the Grand Jury Prize. The film, titled "The Wolfpack," tells the story of an American teenager growing up completely isolated from the world. "I encountered these kids on the street one day, and now I'm here to show a film about their lives," director Crystal Moselle shared.

The Sundance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in the United States and is considered a model of success for independent films worldwide. In recent years, Sundance has been recognized as a breeding ground for discovering outstanding low-budget films by independent filmmakers. Last year, two films discovered at this festival, Boyhood and Whiplash, were nominated for the most important Oscars this year. This year's Sundance Film Festival runs from January 22nd to February 1st.

According to VNE