At the Latin Resurgence panel at the Filmmaker Lodge on Wednesday, Mexican actor and director Diego Luna questioned whether there’s a real resurgence of Latin American cinema taking place. “We can’t talk about Latin American film as a whole,” he said, because every nation in Latin America tends to make films that are made and distributed only for that country’s audiences. “We have a big boom of filmmakers in Latin America but not a boom of Latin cinema,” he said.

The Festival’s Sundance en Español program is its own kind of resurgence; in addition to featuring the Latin Resurgence panel, Sundance en Español offered a collection of six Spanish language films and four films in English by Hispanic and Latino directors selected from the 2008 Festival program, the movies screened in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night. “Sundance en Español celebrates independent films that speak to the diverse Latino communities here in Utah,” said Jill Miller, Sundance Institute’s managing director. “We chose films that range in place, voice and emotion, so our local community has a chance to enjoy some of the best offerings of the Festival.”