Hopefully no one put much stock in my predictions for what would win the jury prizes at Sundance, because, as usual, the jury did what the jury wanted to. They shut out popular choices like "Sugar" and "Phoebe in Wonderland" in favor of smaller films that might have a harder time finding audiences.

"Frozen River" took the top prize, which gave me a chance to catch up with it the evening of the awards announcement. It's a very solid choice, thoroughly indie but with the potential to click with thoughtful audiences and even score some significant awards attention for lead actress Melissa Leo.

What begins as the story of a woman (Leo) whose no-good husband walks off and leaves her to raise their two children on her own becomes something more when she gets embroiled in an illegal immigrant smuggling ring on Native American territory in upstate New York.

The film works as both a thriller and a character drama and though it's inescapably small scale, it's worthy of larger attention. Fortunately, Sony Pictures Classics acquired U.s. distribution rights even before "Frozen River" took home the big award.

Mexican sci-fi romance "Sleep Dealer" picked up two prizes, one for its screenplay and another for its depiction of science on film (the festival's unique "Alfred P. Sloan Prize"), but the politically charged film is more notable for its ideas than its execution.

In the not too distant future people can upgrade their bodies with "nodes" which allow them to jack in to computers and perform tasks from remote locations. That proves useful for everything from the military to anyone seeking cheap labor from foreign countries (it's the ultimate in outsourcing, and helps keep pesky illegal immigrants from crossing the enormous wall that has sprung up between Mexico and the U.S.).

"Sleep Dealer" borrows freely from the work of celebrated sci-fi filmmakers like David Cronenberg, Paul Verhoeven and the Wachowski brothers. What's unclear from the overly solemn film is whether or not writer-director Alex Rivera truly has the vision to craft a work at their level if Hollywood proves willing to give him the budget to try.

British documentary "Man on Wire" also picked up two prizes, both the jury and the audience award in the World Documentary Competition. Fitting honors for such a crowd-pleasing and accomplished portrait of Philippe Petit, who boldly (or insanely) performed an illegal high wire act between the twin towers of the world Trade Center in 1974. Uniquely unfolding like a heist movie, "Man on Wire" proves to be as entertaining and rebellious as its central figure.

Finally, "Savage Grace" was ineligible for awards as part of Sundance's "Premieres" section and arrived with somewhat mixed buzz from its festival debut at Toronto in September. The eerie and unsettling docudrama takes the true life tragedy of socialite Barbara Daly (a stunning Julianne Moore) and spins it into a twisted tale of an unbreakable (and unhealthy) mother/son bond. The film is more successful artistically than emotionally, but it's hard to shake off in any case.

And with that we'll close the book on the 2008 Sundance film festival. It's time to warm up, chill out and get some much needed sleep. But here's another look at the best of the 40 Sundance titles that Metromix caught up with at this year's edition.

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