Sunday, January 28, 2007

Latin American Films Top Sundance Film Festival

Two Latin American films have swept awards at this year's Sundance independent film festival.



Padre Nuestro (Our Father) tells the story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico seeking his father in New York and was given the Grand Jury Prize.

Manda Bala (Send A Bullet), a film portraying the violence of modern Brazilian society, also won an award.

An Irish film has won The World Cinema Audience Award at the prestigious Film Festival.
The award was given to 'ONCE', directed by John Carney. ONCE is described as a modern day musical set on the streets of Dublin.

More than 120 films have been screened during the 10-day festival which takes place in Park City, Utah. The director of the 2007 edition of the competition, Geoffrey Gilmore, said it has been a "landmark year" for the festival.

Manda Bala, which examines corruption and crime in Brazil, was given the documentary jury's top honour.

An Israeli film entitled Sweet Mud which explores the relationship between a young boy and his mentally ill mother won the World Cinema prize.

The Audience Award for best drama was given to a film which portrays a father who must tell his children that their mother has been killed in Iraq.

The director of Grace is Gone, starring John Cusak, said he wanted to "show what really happened to bring us to this horrific state".

Charles Ferguson's film is one of which several influenced by the Iraq conflict at this year's Sundance festival.

Thanks to BBC for the above news bite

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