Recent Academy-award nominated actress Melissa Leo is set to star in the independent drama Betty Ann Waters along with Hilary Swank, Minnie Driver and Sam Rockwell.

Shooting began this week in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Tony Goldwyn directs the film that focuses on an unemployed single mother who saw her brother begin serving a life sentence in 1983 for murder and robbery. Certain of his innocence, she achieved a law degree and contested the conviction with DNA evidence, resulting in her brother being freed in 2001.

Swank’s playing the title character while Leo portrays the only woman officer at a local police station who pins the murder on him.