Adrienne Shelly, star of Hal Hartley's early films, went on to become a promising director in her own right - before being murdered in New York last year. Her widower Andy Ostroy tells Denis Cliffordabout Shelly's groundbreaking work and her final film, Waitress

The inclusion of a film on the Sundance Film Festival bill can turn an indie ripple into a mainstream wave. Little Miss Sunshine, the hit of the 2006 festival, went on to major box-office success and Academy Award recognition.

Many see a trend emerging: Waitress, a quirky comedy featured at last January's Sundance, has been widely touted as "this year's Sunshine". If 2006 was little girls and dance contests, 2007 is waitresses and pie recipes.

So far, so feelgood. However, the story behind Waitress is anything but frothy. Adrienne Shelly, the film's director, died two months before the film premiered at Sundance. A builder named Diego Pillco confessed to having killed Shelly in Greenwich Village, New York, last November. The murder apparently followed an altercation between the two over the noise he was making in the apartment below hers.

Shelly acquired fame long before this gruesome event. At the turn of the 1990s, she starred in the acclaimed Hal Hartley films The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. Her stylised, deadpan delivery contributed much to these films. Though Hartley and Shelley both went on to make more films, this was arguably his best work as a director and hers as an actor.

However, Shelly's husband, Andy Ostroy, the CEO of a marketing company, believes that her legacy rests only partially on her earlier achievements. Later, Shelly moved into directing. Waitress was her third outing.

"Adrienne was the first independent film actress to really become prominent," he says with warmth in his voice. "I think she put independent film on the map, she and Hal Hartley together.

"She was the original indie ingenue but she knew very early on that her destiny was gonna be more than simply performing. She was going to write and direct and control that destiny and be an example for other women. She was very tiny, just 5'1", but she stood tall in an industry that throws a lot of challenges at women.

"With Waitress she was able to make a movie that was exactly how she envisioned it, from the script to the acting to the costumes, from the colour palette to co-writing the lead song in the film. She really had her imprint on every single aspect of that movie, and I think it's a film that could very well be studied in film schools in the future as an example of what it means to be an independent film-maker, what it means to stay true to your art."

Ostroy set up a foundation to honour Shelly's memory, some weeks after her death. "People were asking if they could make a donation in her name," he explains. "I decided the best thing to do would be to start a film-making foundation in her name. The independent film world is extremely difficult to break into, and when you layer that with gender bias, it makes it that much more difficult. So we're trying to champion women film-makers and help them produce their art."

The Adrienne Shelly Foundation provides financial assistance through institutions such as Columbia University, NYU, the American Film Institute and the Sundance Institute. In the months since it was set up, several recipients have been awarded grants, living stipends and scholarships to film schools.

"It's been a very singular mission," notes Ostroy. "I think Adrienne would be honoured to have her name associated with all these institutions and to see the faces of the women we've handed cheques to . . . She'd be very happy about that."

Waitress opens on August 10th. See also www.adrienneshellyfoundation.org