Emily Mortimer Taps Alison Oliver & Yura Borisov To Lead ‘Dennis,' Her Feature Directorial Debut For A24 & Fruit Tree
EXCLUSIVE: Alison Oliver (Saltburn) and Anora Oscar nominee Yura Borisov have signed on to star in Dennis, a romance marking the feature debut of BAFTA-nominated actress Emily Mortimer, for A24 and Fruit Tree.
Written and directed by Mortimer, the film follows a British student (Oliver) and a Russian poet (Borisov) who fall in love in 1990s Moscow.
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The project marks a reunion for A24 and Fruit Tree following their work on two Jesse Eisenberg projects: his forthcoming untitled comedy, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, on which we were first to report, and his feature directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World. Previously, the companies have also collaborated on Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow, as well as The Curse, the Showtime series from Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, starring Fielder and Fruit Tree's Emma Stone.
Stone, Dave McCary and Ali Herting will produce Dennis through Fruit Tree alongside Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola and Lizzie Nastro Adler for King Bee Productions. Exec producers include Joshua Horsfield for Intake, Viktória Petrányi for Proton Cinema, and Jacob Epstein for Lighthouse. A24 will finance the film and handle its worldwide release.
Perhaps best known for a striking supporting turn in Emerald Fennell's Saltburn, Oliver has subsequently reunited with the filmmaker on her Warner Bros adaptation of literary classic Wuthering Heights, which is slated for release on February 13, 2026. Also recently seen in Justin Kurzel's The Order, she'll next be seen starring alongside Mark Ruffalo in HBO's buzzy crime drama Task from Mare of Easttown's Brad Ingelsby. She's represented by Curtis Brown and CAA.
Since garnering an Oscar nomination for his turn as Igor in Sean Baker's Anora, Borisov has been tapped to star opposite Andrew Garfield and Monica Barbaro in Artificial, Luca Guadagnino's new AI-themed film for Amazon MGM Studios. He is represented by UTA, ColorCreative, and Gang Tyre Ramer.
Breaking out as a filmmaker with The Pursuit of Love, a limited series she wrote and directed for the BBC and Amazon, where she starred alongside Lily James, Andrew Scott, and Dominic West, Mortimer also co-wrote, created, starred in, and showran the HBO series Doll and Em opposite Dolly Wells. Most recently, she co-wrote Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach's new film for Netflix, where she stars alongside Adam Sandler and George Clooney.
As an actress, Mortimer has also worked with top filmmakers including Aaron Sorkin (The Newsroom), Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island, Hugo), Woody Allen (Match Point), Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins), and Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl), among others. She is represented by UTA, Tavistock Wood, Lighthouse Management & Media, and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern.
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San Francisco Chronicle
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an hour ago
Marlee Matlin tells her story in an intimate and groundbreaking documentary
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I didn't realize until I took the job that really the whole form of documentary as we know it is really rooted in sound, in the assumption that people will be speaking and they can speak. I thought, what are we going to do when we're using American Sign Language? I have to reframe a whole form of documentary. We have to be able to see what a visually-based documentary is going to look like. We wouldn't do justice to Marlee's life if I had forced this form that really wasn't rooted in the way that she experienced this life. And that was exciting to do. Scary for some people out there, but I never felt scared in making this documentary because she believed in me. MATLIN: If I had had a hearing director approach me to do this project, we could have done a very good job, but that person would not have seen me in the same way. They would not have the same lens as a deaf person. STERN: I did want to film with captions in mind, so I made sure that we did have a wider frame. We figured out visual voiceover with a split screen that we added. We did this little surgery with words and syllables in one of the scenes where we mixed them all around to be able to bring people into how Marlee experiences conversations and the world. We wanted to make this documentary an immersive experience for the audience members, a sensory experience to help them understand. MATLIN: 'CODA' certainly was a milestone and respected by so many people in the industry. It tackled a lot of things that both deaf and hearing people or audiences can identify with. I love the fact that they burnt in the captions. That you can't just turn it off. And I hoped that all the love we received and the three Academy Awards that we got would make a difference. It was honored on so many other levels too as well, whether we're talking about (director) Sian (Heder) or you're talking about Troy (Kotsur) or the SAG award which was just a dream come true, specifically of mine. I took that opportunity to specifically address that that we 'exist,' that we want to be actors just like you, we want to be directors, we want be producers, we want to be hair and wardrobe stylists. We want to work in all levels of production. So 'CODA' really elevated that conversation about how much we wanted to be part of the industry. But for some reason it didn't really break open the door as wide as I would have thought. Yet we just don't give up. We are persistent. Because it is what it is. We are working on our own levels to make changes. STERN: Marlee said something really brave when we were at Sundance. She said, 'It won't last.' The moment, yes, in the moment. But I don't know if we have movement. MATLIN: There's so many stories that we can tell, so many stories that you can put up on screen, so many stories that we can put on stage. I'd like to see action because I've been hearing that, 'Yes, we have to do this' or 'I will do this,' but it's been 40 years. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I just want to make sure that we put our money where our mouth is. I go back to that comment about Rex Reed. I wonder if he would ever see this film. I'd love to see if he has the balls to make a comment and say, "Oh look, I realize I might have said something wrong." That's just one example of the things I'd like to see happen. And maybe the people who interviewed me over the years. I don't want you to misunderstand me, I have a great deal of respect for them. But specifically, I am calling out Rex Reed. So, you know, sorry but not sorry.
Washington Post
an hour ago
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