With a determinedly global outlook, the 2007 Sundance Film Festival awarded Padre Nuestro , Christopher Zalla's drama of Mexican nationals making their treacherous way in New York City, the grand jury prize for dramatic feature. The documentary jury awarded its prize to Manda Bala , chronicling political violence in Brazil.

Announced at the closing ceremony, the Park City, Utah, festival audience award for best dramatic feature went to Grace Is Gone , starring John Cusack as the widower of a soldier killed in Iraq.

For the same film, writer-director James C. Strouse won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.

Hear and Now won the audience award for best documentary. In the Shadow of the Moon was the audience favorite in the world cinema documentary category.

The world cinema jury prize's dramatic feature winner was Israel's Sweet Mud , set on a kibbutz in the 1970s. Denmark's Enemies of Happiness took home the world cinema documentary jury prize.

The world cinema audience award in the dramatic category went to the beguiling Irish charmer Once , about a romance between a Dublin busker and a Czech immigrant.

A special documentary jury prize was awarded to the meticulous and compelling No End in Sight . For best directors, Sundance juries picked Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine for the documentary War/Dance and Jeffrey Blitz for the wry comedy Rocket Science .

© 2007, Chicago Tribune.

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