Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt)
Director: Monica Zanetti Run Time: 83 min. Rating: PG-13 Release Year: 2020
Starring: Julia Billington, Marta Dusseldorp, Rachel House, Sophie Hawkshaw, Zoe Terakes
Country: Australia
Language: English
“so gossamer-light and cute that you don’t realize how good it is until it punches you, right in the heart”
–Roger Moore for Movie Nation
About the film:
Screened at the 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival
School captain Ellie is seriously crushing on her rebellious classmate Abbie. Determined to ask her first love to the year 12 formal, Ellie devises a plan to go public with the invitation but before she can go through with it, her dead aunt Tara reappears from beyond the grave.
Believing she’s been brought back from the dead to be Ellie’s fairy godmother, Tara dishes out unwanted dating advice based on her life as an out lesbian in the ’80s.
About the filmmaker:
Feature directorial debut for Australian screenwriter and director Monica Zanetti based on her own 2016 stage play. An advocate for queer storytelling, she wrote and starred in the 2014 feature Skin Deep, which won Best Narrative Feature at Austin Film Festival and earned her a spot on the “25 Screenwriters to watch” list from MovieMaker Magazine.
Zanetti has also helmed several short films, and in 2019, received funding through Screen Australia to develop her original series Unwell. She also wrote an episode of the series Sisters and co-wrote an episode of My Life is Murder starring Lucy Lawless.
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