A grieving girl connects with her estranged father in this Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize–winning debut infused with warmth and light.

Twelve-year-old Georgie lives alone in an East London council flat. Following the death of her mother, she has avoided eviction by stealing and reselling bikes, and by convincing the authorities she’s being cared for by an uncle called “Winston Churchill”. But things get complicated when her dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson, Triangle of Sadness, MIFF 2022; Beach Rats, MIFF 2017), reappears after over a decade away. Behaving with the immaturity of someone closer to her age, Jason is out of his depth and unwelcome until he and Georgie realise how alike they are.

Charlotte Regan’s energetic and inventive debut feature depicts coming of age with stinging frankness, but tempers it with whimsy, wit and even forays into magic realism – a style that’s been described as a blend of Ken Loach and Wes Anderson. Vibrantly played by newcomer Lola Campbell, who has an effortless chemistry with Dickinson, Georgie faces a world that should be bathed in grey, but Regan and DOP Molly Manning Walker (whose own film How to Have Sex screens in competition at MIFF 2023) masterfully enliven it with a luminous tenderness.

“Regan has announced herself as a feature filmmaker with style, and this energetic feel-good film is a lovely cure for the winter blues.” – Little White Lies