‘Jimpa’ Director on Making LGBTQ Family Film in Time of Anti-Trans Vitriol | Video
Sophie Hyde’s new film “Jimpa,” which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, began as a deeply personal story about her experience as the child of a gay father and parent of a transgender teen. But as anti-trans sentiment grew during production, the family drama took on new urgency.
“I had no idea that it would become so antagonistic towards trans people in particular,” Hyde told executive editor Adam Chitwood at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “Now we’re in a place where suddenly parents are at risk for loving and supporting their children. And that is just crazy to me, because if you’re a parent, you look at your child and they tell you who they are, you should believe them and feel very grateful that they express that to you.”
Hyde, winner of the World Cinema Directing Award Dramatic for “52 Tuesdays” (2014 Sundance Film Festival), returns with an expansive family portrait inspired by her own family. John Lithgow is Jim, an aging, homosexual patriarch living loud and proud in Amsterdam’s vibrant gay community. Reconnecting with Jimpa during a long working holiday, his daughter Hannah (Olivia Colman) navigates complicated feelings toward her estranged father while Hannah’s non-binary child Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) discovers the pleasures and perils of queer life in the big city.
Lithgow, who previously explored LGBTQ+ themes in “Love Is Strange,” was compelled by Hyde’s take on this story. “I was delighted by the daring of it,” Lithgow said, adding that he was drawn to Hyde’s work after seeing her film “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” Lithgow praised Hyde’s unique rehearsal process, where the cast spent a week building genuine connections without running scenes:
“All of the actors became friends for life because she told us to,” the actor said. “She instructed us to deeply get to know each other, because that would make the film better.”
Executive producer and performer Aud Mason-Hyde, who is Hyde’s child and plays Frances in the film, emphasized the importance of authentic representation.
“When you live in your community and your communities, which I strive to with my trans community and queer community, it’s easy to talk about because you’re from that. That’s where you’re from, that’s who you engage with… we made it from that place, and we engaged people, and we made it our community as well, which I think you can tell from watching the film.”
Watch the full interview in the embed above.
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