The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
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Director: Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt Run Time: 105 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2025 Language: Norwegian
Starring: Ane Dahl Torp, Flo Fagerli, Isac Calmroth, Lea Mathilde Skar-Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss
“The Ugly Stepsister Is The Substance For Disney Adults. A tragic fable takes on a surprisingly modern, delightfully gory bent.”
– Inverse
Country: Norway, Denmark, Romania, Poland, Sweden
Language: Norwegian
About the film:
World Premiere – 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
A delightfully nasty fairy-tale facelift, The Ugly Stepsister drags Cinderella through the mud, blood, and surgical steel in Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt’s jaw-clenching debut. Imagine The Brothers Grimm by way of a medieval Extreme Makeover, with all the body horror and bile-spewing absurdity you could ever wish (upon a star) for—and then some.
Elvira (Lea Myren), the so-called “ugly” stepsister, isn’t hideous by any stretch, but that doesn’t stop her gold-digger mother (Ane Dahl Torp) from demanding an excruciating glow-up in the name of royal matrimony. With a quack doctor wielding chisels, sutures, and eyelash-sewing needles, Elvira is reshaped—nose, teeth, weight, and all—to compete with her cruelly perfect stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) for the prince’s attention. But beauty is a beast, and Elvira’s transformation isn’t just painful—it’s parasitic. Literally.
About the filmmaker:
Emilie Blichfeldt was a teenager before her love of film could ignite. “I grew up in a tiny village above the Arctic Circle on the rough coast of northern Norway. My parents were all about books. We got our first VHS player combined with a DVD player when I was 13. That’s when I had my first big film experience. I watched Amélie on repeat!” recounts the filmmaker.
The Ugly Stepsister (2025) is her debut feature film.
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