Last night, filmmakers and Festivalgoers crowded into the Park City Racquet Club to celebrate the close of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and to learn which films Festival juries and audiences had chosen for awards. The Festival’s Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic, awarded to one of the 16 U.S. films in the Independent Film Competition: Dramatic, went to Christopher Zalla’s Padre Nuestro. In Spanish and English, the film tells the story of Juan who hops a truck transporting illegal immigrants from Mexico to New York City to escape his criminal past. On the truck he meets Pedro, a fellow immigrant, seeking his wealthy father.
Christopher Zalla’s
Padre Nuestro |
Jason Kohn’s
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) |
Accepting the award, Zalla said, “I didn’t prepare anything because I’ve never won anything in my life... for a kid who was once on welfare this is a pretty amazing place to be," Zalla said. "There are people in this country that we decide to call illegal – an illegal human being – and I just don’t get that... so I want to dedicate this film to those who are toiling so hard just to make a living.”
The international scope of the U.S. films at the Festival this year was also reflected by the film receiving the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. Jason Kohn’s Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) was selected by the jury from the 16 films in the Independent Film Competition: Documentary for top honors. In Brazil, known as one of the world’s most corrupt and violent countries, Manda Bala follows a politician who uses a frog farm to steal billions of dollars, a wealthy businessman who spends a small fortune bulletproofing his cars, and a plastic surgeon who reconstructs the ears of mutilated kidnapping victims.
"I have to single out 2007 Sundance Film Festival, I think, as one of our landmark years,” said Sundance Film Festival Director Geoff Gilmore. “Your films have defined what independent film can be and what independent film will be.”
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