Sony Pictures Classics has paid high six figures for domestic rights to Courtney Hunt's Dramatic Competition entry Frozen River.

SPC had been in talks with William Morris Independent for two days and finally closed the deal at around 8pm on Wednesday night [Jan 23]. The upstate New York-set tale follows two desperate women who team up to smuggle illegal aliens into the US.

Melissa Leo, Misty Upham and Charlie McDermott star while Heather Rae and Chip Hourihan produced.

Meanwhile the first two Slamdance deals closed as The Collective sold domestic rights to Jon Knautz' horror comedy Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer to Anchor Bay Entertainment and start-up Canadian distributor Neoclassics Films took US rights to Sascha Drews, Ezra Krybus and Matthew Miller's thriller Crooked Lake (aka Portage).

At time of writing Sugar, Ballast, Phoebe In Wonderland, The Wackness, Sunshine Cleaning, Sleep Dealer and Baghead were among the most prominent titles in play.

Another distribution deal for the documentary Kicking It following the announcement about ESPN earlier in the festival is expected within the next 24 hours.

Anchor Bay paid mid six figures for Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, which stars newcomer Trevor Matthews as a man whose family was brutally murdered and comes to understand his rage after he awakens an ancient evil. Robert Englund also stars.

Shaun Redick and Nate Bolotin of The Collective negotiated the deal last night [Jan 23] with Anchor Bay's Mark Ward.

Croooked Lane sold for mid six figures and follows four 14-year-old girls who encounter death and mayhem on a nightmarish summer canoeing trip.

Neoclassics, led by CEO and chairman Irwin Olian, a former senior attorney at Warner Bros, negotiated the deal with producers Nicholas D Tabarrok, Jaty Tam and Matthew Miller.

Neoclassics plans to release films in the US through its genre label Tigertail Flix.

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