SHEEPWELL to Premiere at Austin Film Festival

SHEEPWELL will have its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival on November 1st, 2026 at 10:00PM. Michole Briana White, Connor Paolo, Denise Grayson and Lauren Elizabeth Harris are expected to be in attendance.

The screening is set for the Galaxy Theatre: Screen 4 at 6:00 PM CST, and will be followed by a Q&A with Michole Briana White, Connor Paolo, Denise Grayson and Lauren Elizabeth Harris. More information is available on the Austin Film Festival event page.

Logline

After a mysterious naked man stumbles into their rural Alabama home, a whiskey-drinking, shotgun-wielding mother and her daughter cautiously offer him refuge, only to find themselves locked in a dangerous game of truth, control, and resistance.

Synopsis

In the middle of the night in rural Alabama, a naked man appears in the backyard of Wattle, a guarded academic with a shotgun and a half-finished novel, and her daughter, Sarah. He claims he's been robbed while walking the length of Highway 29, though the details of his story shift under scrutiny. Wattle and Sarah are not naïve; they are deliberate. They do not invite just anyone inside. Yet there is something about this man - a fracture in his confidence, a flicker of vulnerability - that allows them, cautiously, to extend shelter. They feed him. They question him. They watch him.

Trust is not given freely in this house. It is tested. As the women attempt to untangle the truth of the stranger's arrival, it becomes clear they are protecting something of their own. The balance of power shifts in quiet increments, through conversation, through silence, through what is withheld.

Inspired by the Lope De Vega play, Fuenteovejuna, this shocking feminist thriller reveals what happens when an overconfident traveler messes with the wrong women. Developed through New York's SheNYC Arts and refined through live performance, Sheepwell is directed by AFI alum Kim Caicedo, whose award-winning thesis film Francis earned the DGA Jury Prize. Reuniting her original creative team with SheNYC Arts' Danielle DeMatteo and Lauren Elizabeth Harris, Caicedo brings a deeply character-driven story to the screen with a precision shaped by both stage and cinema.

Credits

Sheepwell is a film from She NYC Arts, starring Michole Briana White, Connor Paolo, Alix Lapri, Denise Grayson, John Carey and Mark Ryan Anderson. The film is directed by Kim Caicedo, written by Danielle DeMatteo and Kim Caicedo, and produced by Danielle DeMatteo and Lauren Elizabeth Harris. Jessica Arzate serves as Cinematographer, with Camila Pons Del Toro as Production Designer.