"Beasts of Southern Wild" wins Sundance Film Festival's grand jury prize

(CBS/AP) The Sundance Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend with Louisiana drama "Beasts of the Southern Wild" taking home the festival's top grand jury prize.

Pictures: Sundance Film Festival 2012
Pictures: Sundance 2012 Fashion

The film follows a poor Louisiana girl named Hushpuppy, played by 8-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, and her father. The film, directed and co-written by 29-year-old first-time filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, also won the cinematography prize.

"The Surrogate," a film based on the life of poet and journalist Mark O'Brien and his quest to lose his virginity while confined to an iron lung, won the audience award for U.S. drama. The film stars Helen Hunt as a sex therapist, John Hawkes as O'Brien and William H. Macy as a priest. The cast picked up a special Sundance jury prize for ensemble acting. The film sold to Fox Searchlight for a reported $6 million.

Other fiction films that seemed to impress audiences at the film festival included "Smashed," a comedy on alcoholism that won a special jury prize, and "Middle of Nowhere," a story of a woman's life after her husband is sentenced to prison, for which director Ana DuVernay won the directing prize.