The 4th annual festival opened Friday night with standing room only in the 800 seat Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California with Fina Torres' Woman On Top. Popular American actor-producer and festival board member Edward James Olmos, who has been presenting each film and its filmmakers, said the turnout over the weekend has made this the most successful Latino festival to date.

Approximately 45 feature films from 11 Latin American countries, Spain and the U.S., four documentaries, and a series of short films will continue to screen throughout the week at both auditoriums at the Egyptian Theater. An estimated 25,000 people are expected to attend the nine day event.

Woman on Top (aka Peppers, Sex and Samba), by Paris-based Venezuelan filmmaker Fina Torres, an English-language comedy from Fox Searchlight Pictures starring Spanish film favorite Penelope Cruz, screened a second time to a sold out crowd Saturday night. The film is about a woman, who with femininity and intelligence, finds a loving way to get what she wants in order to be happy with her man. It debuted in the Certain Regard section at Cannes in May. Friday was its U.S. debut.

The closing night film is La Ley de Herodes (The Law of Herodes), a drama about politics and idealism set in a small town in northern Mexico from Mexican director Luis Estrada.

Among the other notable titles are Un Paraiso Bajo Las Estrellas (A Paradise Under the Stars), the smash Cuban hit, shot in part at the world famous Tropicana, from filmmaker Gerardo Chijona; Argentina new rising star director Pablo Trapero's contemporary drama Mundo Grua, which has been on the film festival circuit; La Nina de Tus Ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams) starring Penelope Cruz and directed by Fernando Trueba, which was Spain's entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar earlier this year; Academy Award-winning French director Regis Warnier's Spanish production of a drama about women, Solas, directed by Benito Zambrano; Brazilian Carlos Diegues' Orfeo; and the three-part documentary Eisenstein in Mexico by Alexandra Islas about the adventures 45 years ago of the famous Russian director while filming in Mexico.

The Gala Awards Night, scheduled for July 29, will honor Mexican diva Maria Felix with the Gabriel Figueroa Award, the "Gabi"Award, for her body of work. Felix, known as "La Dona" by her adoring fans, refused to work in American films but did work with international directors such as Luis Bunuel and Jean Renoir. The Figueroa Award has previously been awarded to esteemed actor Raul Julia posthumously. Last year the award went to Spanish film director Carlos Saura.

Contributor/festival specialist
Wendy Carrel