British actresses Brenda Blethyn and Janet McTeer were the toast of the Sundance Film Festival when their latest movies won two of the top awards.

As the 10-day event wound-up for another year, Blethyn's new movie Saving Grace won the audience award for world cinema.

While McTeer received a special jury prize for outstanding ensemble performance, along with her Songcatcher co-actors.

McTeer, who is still glowing from her Golden Globe success last week for Tumbleweeds, plays a musicologist in 1907 who gathers folk songs in the Appalachian backwoods.

She stars alongside Playboys actor Aidan Quinn in the melodrama. Pat Carroll, Jane Adams, Gregory Cook and Iris Dement also appear.

Secrets & Lies star Blethyn, took on another humorous but challenging role in Saving Grace.

She plays a woman who inherits a manor house and the princely mortgage and taxes that go with it. To pay the bills, she has to resort to growing marijuana in the estate's greenhouse.

Industry leader

Overall, the movie has emerged from Sundance as a hot contender for future box office success. It has been described by festival visitors as a heartwarming picture in the tradition of The Full Monty.

And along with accolades and awards, it was one of the first films to be snapped up, with New Line cinema paying around $4m (£2.5m) for the rights.

Sundance, co-founded by actor Robert Redford, is the foremost festival for independent films in the US.

It annually draws to the small town of Park city, east of Salt Lake City, not only film fans, but also Hollywood executives looking to buy products for the upcoming year.

Many of the movies will go on to become the year's top indie films, as was the case with The Blair Witch Project last year.

The weekend's award ceremony marked the festival's climax. Honours were given in several other categories in addition to those already mentioned, including best dramatic film, best documentary, directing and screenwriting.



Specialist talent

Girlfight tied with You Can Count On Me - for the title of best dramatic film.

Starring Michelle Rodriguez as a young inner city girl who uses boxing to boost her self-esteem, Karyn Kusama was named best director of dramatic film.

Director/screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan took the award for best screenwriting for You Can Count on Me, a story of sibling love with Matthew Broderick and Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo.

Another of the festival's big winners was the documentary Dark Days which took three awards - the audience prize for best documentary, best cinematography for a documentary and the freedom of expression award.

It chronicles the lives of many homeless people in New York who made homes and built a community among the underground tunnels of Manhattan.

Donal Logue won a special jury prize for outstanding performance in The Tao of Steve.

To date, the 34-year-old actor has mainly had minor parts in high-profile movies such as Jerry Maguire and Blade.

He stars as an overweight womaniser whose pick- up technique is based on the cool aloofness of Steve McQueen.