Sundance Film Festival juries on Saturday gave the top International prize to the Israeli movie "Sweet Mud."

Dror Shaul's film, which tells the story of a boy dealing with his mentally ill mother on a kibbutz in the 1970s, won the World Cinema jury prize for best drama.

"Sweet Mud," a co-production of teams from Germany, France, and Japan, was also elected as the Israeli nominee for the best foreign film category of the Oscars, but did not make the list of five finalists for the award.

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"I am very happy," said the film's director, Dror Shaul, after his film was selected by the Israeli Film Academy to represent Israel at the Oscars. "I awaited this decision and it could have a very profound impact, both on the film's global sales and my career."

Director Ari Sandel's short film "West Bank Story," a musical comedy about competing falafel stands in the West Bank, is among the finalists in the best live action short film category of the Oscars.

"Padre Nuestro," which tells of an illegal immigrant from Mexico looking for his father in New York City, won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best drama made by a U.S filmmaker, while "Manda Bala," a look at crime and corruption in Brazil, earned the jury honor for top U.S. documentary.

Denmark's "Enemies of Happiness," which details the life of an Afghani woman politician, earned the World Cinema jury prize for best documentary.

Festival director Geoffrey Gilmore called 2007 a "landmark year" due in large part to the numerous topics and quality of independent films screened here at the top U.S. festival for movies made outside Hollywood's mainstream studios.

"For so many different reasons, this work is exceptional in terms of how much of it will get into the marketplace, and the range of issues and maturity of the filmmakers," Gilmore said.

The juries at Sundance, which is backed by actor Robert Redford's Sundance Institute for filmmaking, are composed of five filmmakers and industry professionals for the U.S.-made movies, and three jury members for the World Cinema awards.

Dror Shaul was previously best known for his comedies "Operation Grandma" and "Sima Vaknin is a Witch." In "Sweet Mud," Shaul tells a personal story of a young boy in a 1970's kibbutz whose family suffers from abuse and alienation at the hands of the other kibbutz members. Ronit Yodkevitch, who won acclaim for her role in "Gift from Above," plays the boy's emotionally-disturbed mother, whose children are forced to look after her and suffer from her maltreatment at the hands of the community.

Shaul began working on the film along with some of the world's best screenwriters in the Sundance Festival's screenplay workshops. The winner of last year's Golden Globe award for best foreign-language film, Hani Abu Assad, made his start on his award-winning film "Paradise Now" in a similar way. In addition to the Golden Globe award, Abu Assad's film was among five finalists in its category in the Oscars.

Despite not dealing with a current affairs issue, as Shaul puts it, the global interest in the film demonstrates that while the film takes place on a 1970's kibbutz, the relationships between family members and social alienation sound and look alike worldwide.