Frozen River garners Oscar nominations

Frozen River, the film about smuggling people across the frozen St. Lawrence River on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation, nabbed two Oscar nominations today. Melissa Leo was nominated for best actress. Director Courtney Hunt made the list for best original screenplay.

Hunt’s husband is from Malone, hence her interest in Akwesasne and the North Country. She filmed a short version of Frozen River on the St. Lawrence River (listen to my story, including an interview with Melissa Leo here), but the feature length was actually filmed on Lake Champlain near Plattsburgh. Maybe the Mohawks weren’t so thrilled to be associated with smuggling on the big screen.

Anyway, congrats to Courtney (a more recent interview with her here). I’m sure a lot of North Country fans will be pulling for you on February 22nd.