Each spring, I have the honor of reading screenplays for the Independent Feature Project, a New York-based non-profit that helps independent filmmakers get their movies made. Our job is to sift through several hundred scripts -- most of them unsolicited -- and find about 20 gems to submit to producers.

Two years ago, a screenplay was handed to me with the rather dull, derivative-sounding title of Frozen River. Its writer, Courtney Hunt, had never directed a feature film before, and this was her first feature-length screenplay. Having already slogged through dozens of unpolished, amateurish efforts, I began this one with a deflating sigh.

Within three pages I was rapt. The story was about two impoverished women on the New York/Quebec border who had begun smuggling illegal immigrants across the border into the US in the trunk of a Dodge Spirit. They'd drive across the frozen river to Canada, load the illegals, and drive back to the US. All in the dead of night. I was impressed with the sympathetic way it dealt with the women who smuggled the immigrants. For them, it was merely a way to earn a living. And in their remote, frigid corner of the world, it seemed like the only way.

As moved as I was by the screenplay, I wondered if it would ever make it to the silver screen. Then I read the reports from this year's Sundance Film Festival: the film won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a wave of self-satisfaction wash over me for having "green-lighted" the script two years ago, though I'm aware that my review alone probably didn't seal the deal on the project. Nevertheless, I feel I'm in a unique position to encourage people to see this film.

Keep an eye on the art house cinemas in the coming months. The film is bound to have an impact.

Photo: Courtney Hunt at the Sundance Film Festival, AP