Sundance festival honors 2 Latino-themed films

A pair of involving films with Latino roots took the two top prizes at the Sundance Film Festival's awards ceremony Saturday night in Park City, Utah.

"Padre Nuestro," written and directed by Christopher Zalla, won the drama grand-jury prize. A Spanish-language film set in New York, it's a disturbing, smartly made debut feature about the dark side of the American dream that pivots around an involuntary exchange of identities between two young illegal immigrants from Mexico.

The documentary grand-jury prize went to Jason Kohn's "Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)." Edgy and provocative in tone, it focuses on how the rich get richer in Brazil and the poor try to get even by kidnapping and other crimes. (The film also won the documentary cinematography award for Heloisa Passos, with the drama cinematography award going to Benoit Debie for "Joshua.")

The only other film to win two awards was James C. Strouse's "Grace Is Gone," starring John Cusack as a father who has all kinds of trouble telling his daughters their mother has died in Iraq. "Grace" took the drama audience award and the Waldo Salt screenwriting award.