Starring Rachel Sennott, Molly Gordon, Dianna Agron and Danny Deferrari
With Polly Draper and Fred Melamed
“A deftly crafted comedy of discomfort.”
Jon Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter
A young woman struggles to keep up different versions of herself when she runs into her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend at a shiva with her parents.
Utopia has released the first trailer for “Shiva Baby,” an absurd Jewish comedy about a college student who runs into both her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend at a family funeral. “Shiva Baby” marks the feature directorial debut of writer/director Emma Seligman, who developed the feature from a short by the same name, which was her NYU thesis film. “Shiva Baby” premiered at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival to largely positive reviews, including by this critic, who wrote: “Bearing a likeness to the early work of Jill Soloway and Jennifer Westfeldt, “Shiva Baby” blends a claustrophobic Jewish humor with a sexy premise to deliver a lively debut.”
A near college graduate, Danielle, gets paid by her sugar daddy and rushes to meet her neurotic parents at a family shiva. Upon arrival, she is accosted by various estranged relatives about her appearance and lack of post-grad plans, while her confident ex-girlfriend, Maya, is applauded by everyone for getting into law school. Danielle’s day takes an unexpected turn when her sugar daddy, Max, arrives at the shiva with his accomplished wife, Kim, and crying baby. As the day unfolds, Danielle struggles to keep up with different versions of herself, fend off pressures from her family and confront her insecurities without completely losing it.
