Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    EmmysSuperheroes GuideSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideBest Of 2025 So FarDisability Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
Back
  • Biography
  • Awards
IMDbPro
Stephen Cole Webley

News

Cole Webley

Ben Stiller’s All-Star Comedy Roundtable Celebrates 30th Nantucket Film Festival
Image
Ben Stiller is not a standup comedian — and that’s Ok.

At the 30th annual Nantucket Film Festival, Stiller assembled a group of comedy all-stars, as he has for the years, to discuss their journeys and share career insights while cracking up the auditorium audience.

This year, Stiller shared that he was “dead set against” a comedy career because it’s what his parents did, and an early attempt at standup in his teens pretty much killed that particular interest. The bit focused on New York City’s alternate side parking policy, and he even performed a version for festival-goers and his fellow panelists.

Obviously, comedy found its way to Stiller one way or another, but not on the path taken by the panel’s improvisers Amber Ruffin and Zach Cherry, or standups Iliza Shlesinger, Michael Ian Black, and Mae Martin. Shlesinger was working a desk job and asked her...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 7/7/2025
  • by Proma Khosla
  • Indiewire
Munich Film Festival Gives Out 2025 Audience, Co-Pro, International & New Talent Awards
Image
The curtain has come down and the accolades been given out at the 42nd edition of the Munich International Film Festival.

The organizers position Munich as a moment when an international focus is put on both German-speaking cinema and projects with German partners and talent. The CineCoPro Award is for German co-producers of international co-productions and is the award with the biggest financial prize, with €100,000 for the winner. A Poet by Colombian filmmaker Simón Mesa Soto and his German co-producer Katharina Bergfeld and Heino Deckert from ma.ja.de took the honor. It had already won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

The CineMasters Award for best international film went to Belgian director Alexe Poukine’s Kika, starring Manon Clavel and winning from a 14-strong field. The CineVision Award, meanwhile, is given for the best international film by an emerging director. To The West, In Zapata by David Bim took the accolade.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 7/7/2025
  • by Stewart Clarke
  • Deadline Film + TV
Image
‘Kika’, ‘Okamoto’ among Munich 2025 competition winners
Image
Titles by Alexe Poukine, David Bim, and Soujiro Sanada were among the winners of the competition sections at this year’s Munich International Film Festival (Miff) which wrapped on Sunday (July 6).

The €15,000 award for best international film in the CineMasters competition went to the French-born director Alexe Poukine for her narrative feature directorial debut Kika, about a social worker who becomes a sex worker after learning some tragic news. It premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, with Totem Films handling sales.

The CineVision competition jury awarded the best international film by an emerging director prize worth €10,000 to Cuban filmmaker David Bim...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 7/7/2025
  • ScreenDaily
Greenwich Entertainment Acquires Katie Aselton’s ‘Magic Hour’
Image
Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Magic Hour, a new indie drama co-written, directed by and starring Katie Aselton, on the heels of its SXSW premiere, slating the film for release in theaters next year.

Starring Aselton, Daveed Diggs, and Brad Garrett, the film follows Erin (Aselton) and Charlie (Diggs) as they escape to the desert to navigate an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship. However, the rendezvous shows they couldn’t be further apart, revealing an even more striking turn in their marriage.

Written by Aselton and her husband and frequent collaborator Mark Duplass, the film hails from the latter’s Duplass Brothers Productions. Emily A. Neumann produced, with Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, and Mel Eslyn exec producing for Duplass Brothers Productions. We were first to report on the project in April 2024.

“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Greenwich,” said Aselton in a statement to Deadline.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 6/23/2025
  • by Matt Grobar
  • Deadline Film + TV
Sundance 2025 Films Sold So Far: Cooper Raiff’s Indie TV Series ‘Hal & Harper’ Goes to Mubi
Image
Sundance didn’t have the plethora of late night bidding wars we used to see in the good old days of the festival, but a number of buzziest titles are actually closing deals late into the spring and into the early summer. Over 60 films came into this year’s Sundance looking for homes, and slowly but surely a number of those are finding homes. As we previously reported, the hope was that even more distributors could get creative.

Below we’ll update all the acquisitions following the festival as they arrive.

“Hal & Harper”

Section: Indie Episodics

Buyer: Mubi

Director: Cooper Raiff

Buzz: The “Shithouse” and “Cha Cha Real Smooth” writer/director’s serialized debut follows two tight-knit siblings forced to face a past tragedy when their dad decides to sell their childhood home. It’s got a strong cast, including Raiff himself, Mark Ruffalo, Betty Gilpin, and Lili Reinhart,...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 6/6/2025
  • by Brian Welk
  • Indiewire
Image
Cercamon Launches Genre Label Vorteks (Exclusive)
Image
Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has launched Vorteks, a new genre label running the gamut from horror to sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, dark comedy and action movies. Handling 8-10 features a year, Vorteks will be run by David Kwok, the Tribeca Film Festival director of programming for its first 10 editions. A partner at Vorteks, Kwok will spearhead acquisitions and sales.

“With a special focus on emerging talent, the label’s evolving slate will reflect the incredible new voices coming out of the genre community,” Kwok said, noting that Vorteks expands Cercamon’s mission of “searching for the best films and to work with bold filmmakers.”

In one case in point, Vorteks’ first official acquisition is “Ancestral Beasts,” the second feature from Canadian writer-director-producer Riedel (“Jackstones”) and a tale of an Indigenous woman’s battle with trauma which weighs in as one of the buzzy projects at Cannes Frontières Platform’s Proof of...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 5/14/2025
  • by John Hopewell
  • Variety Film + TV
‘Limonov: The Ballad’ to Make U.S. Premiere During New Jersey’s Lighthouse International Film Festival: Get the Full Lineup
Image
The 2025 Lighthouse International Film Festival (Liff) has unveiled its program for this summer. The local festival, which takes places on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, will run from June 4 to 8, with special features including the U.S. premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s 2024 Cannes hit “Limonov: The Ballad” starring Ben Whishaw. Serebrennikov’s English-language debut was an IndieWire Critic’s Pick from the festival last year.

Liff 2025 has not yet announced its opening night feature, but IndieWire can reveal that Uta Briesewitz’s “American Sweatshop” will close the festival. Highlights also range from the Centerpiece screening of “Omaha” with John Magaro and SXSW Jury Award winner “Slanted.” Jason Alexander will be the keynote speaker for the 25th anniversary of his feature, “Just Looking.” Elegance Bratton is also among the filmmakers who will be in attendance; the director is screening his documentary “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House” at the festival.
See full article at Indiewire
  • 5/13/2025
  • by Samantha Bergeson
  • Indiewire
Greenwich Entertainment Acquires Sundance Drama ‘Love, Brooklyn’ Produced By & Starring André Holland
Image
Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Love, Brooklyn, an acclaimed indie drama produced by and starring André Holland (Exhibiting Forgiveness), which premiered in U.S. Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, the film is the second Sundance acquisition for Greenwich in as many weeks, on the heels of Cole Webley’s Omaha starring John Magaro. It’ll be released in theaters nationwide later this year.

Marking the directorial debut of Rachael Abigail Holder, Love, Brooklyn follows three longtime Brooklynites as they navigate careers, love, loss and friendship against the rapidly shifting landscape of their beloved city. Roger (Holland) is a writer fighting to maintain his creative integrity in the commercially driven publishing industry. Behind on a deadline, Roger distracts himself by hanging with his old flame Casey (Nicole Beharie), an art gallery owner wrestling with the fate of her...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 5/8/2025
  • by Matt Grobar
  • Deadline Film + TV
Sundance Hit ‘Omaha’ Nabbed by Cercamon for International Sales, Heads to Cannes Market (Exclusive)
Image
Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has snagged international sales rights to family drama “Omaha” following its acclaimed world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was in the U.S. dramatic competition.

The feature directorial debut from Cole Webley will screen for global buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Greenwich Entertainment previously secured North American distribution rights in a deal with UTA Independent Film Group, with a theatrical release planned for later this year.

Written by Robert Machoian (“The Killing of Two Lovers”), “Omaha” follows a struggling widower who takes his children on an unexpected cross-country road trip after a family tragedy. As their journey unfolds, his daughter begins to suspect something isn’t right. Newcomers Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis play the children, with veteran actress Talia Balsam rounding out the cast in a supporting role.

“Intimate in its scope, yet emotionally monumental, this debut feature by director Cole Webley,...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 5/5/2025
  • by Naman Ramachandran
  • Variety Film + TV
Greenwich Entertainment Acquires Cole Webley’s Sundance Drama ‘Omaha’ Starring John Magaro
Image
Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Omaha, the family drama starring Past Lives‘ John Magaro, which premiered to critical acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film, marking the feature directorial debut of Cole Webley, will be released in theaters across the country later this year.

Set against the backdrop of the 2008 economic crisis, Omaha follows a struggling father (Magaro) who embarks on a road trip across the American West with his two children, Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and Charlie (Wyatt Solis), in search of hope and a better life. What begins as a seemingly spontaneous family journey gradually reveals deeper layers of both grief and resilience, as Ella starts to sense that her father’s intentions may be masking a more profound truth.

Written by Robert Machoian (The Killing of Two Lovers), Omaha is a Sanctuary Content production, in association with Kaleidoscope Pictures and Monarch Content.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 4/28/2025
  • by Matt Grobar
  • Deadline Film + TV
‘The Last Meal,’ ‘Omaha’ And ‘The Python Hunt’ Among Winners As 42nd Miami Film Festival Wraps
Image
Maryse Legagneur’s drama The Last Meal (Le Dernier Repas) has earned the top prize at the Miami Film Festival, winning the $15,000 Marimbas Award in international competition. The award, chosen by a jury, goes to a narrative feature film that “best exemplifies richness and resonance for cinema’s future.”

“After 20 years of silence, a dying Reynold asks his estranged daughter, Vanessa, to share his final meals,” notes a description of The Last Meal. “As she prepares the traditional Haitian dishes of his youth, the familiar flavors unlock painful, buried memories of his life and suffering under the Duvalier dictatorship.

“Set against this backdrop of shared history, The Last Meal is a poignant tale of reconciliation, exploring the power of food, cultural memory, and confronting the past to heal fractured family bonds within the Haitian experience. A beautifully crafted film about legacy, healing, and the stories we carry in our bodies and kitchens.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 4/15/2025
  • by Matthew Carey
  • Deadline Film + TV
Festival Favorites ‘The Python Hunt’ and ‘Omaha’ Pick Up More Wins at 2025 Miami Film Festival
Image
It’s always interesting to see which films are able to keep up their film festival momentum after buzzy premieres at early-in-the-year fests like Sundance and SXSW. Two to keep an eye on? Cole Webley’s Sundance premiere “Omaha” and Xander Robin’s SXSW crowdpleaser “The Python Hunt,” both of which just notched new wins over the weekend at the 2025 Miami Film Festival.

“The Python Hunt” picked up the Made in Mia Feature Film Award, sponsored by Panavision, which is designed to honor films “of any genre that prominently feature South Florida in their story, setting, and filming location, and best utilize South Florida’s story and theme for universal resonance.” Robin’s film, a documentary about snake-hunters in the Everglades, sure sounds like it fits the bill.

And Webley’s deep-feeling John Magaro-starring family drama, “Omaha,” earned the Jordan Ressler First Feature Award, created by the South Florida...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 4/14/2025
  • by Kate Erbland
  • Indiewire
Image
Leslie Odom Jr. back to ‘Hamilton,’ Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ trailer, ‘Revenge of the Sith’ 20th anniversary, and more of today’s top stories
Image
Gold Derby's top news stories for April 14, 2025.

The Last of Us posts premiere ratings

HBO shared Sunday night premiere ratings for dystopian drama The Last of Us. The Season 2 premiere garnered 5.3 million viewers on HBO and Max, a number that uses a combination of Nielsen’s measurement of linear TV viewers and Wbd's own streaming data. That's up 13 percent from the Season 1 premiere in 2023, which got 4.7 million viewers.

Leslie Odom Jr. is going back to Hamilton

You've been waiting for it, and now it's happening: Leslie Odom Jr. will be returning to Hamilton on Broadway this fall as Aaron Burr, the role he originated and won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical in 2016 and shared a Grammy for the original cast recording. His run will last from Sept. 9 to Nov. 23 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's era-defining historical hip-hop musical, will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Broadway on Aug.
See full article at Gold Derby
  • 4/14/2025
  • by Liam Mathews
  • Gold Derby
Artists First Signs Cole Webley, Director Of Harrowing Sundance Family Drama ‘Omaha’
Image
Exclusive: Cole Webley, director of the acclaimed Sundance drama Omaha, starring John Magaro, has signed with Artists First for management.

Marking Webley’s feature directorial debut, Omaha follows a father (Magaro) who after a family tragedy, takes his two young children Ella (Molly Wright) and Charlie (Wyatt Solis) on a journey across the country, experiencing a world they’ve never seen before. As their adventure unfolds, Ella begins to understand that things might not be what they seem. The film garnered rave reviews when it premiered in U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2025.

A Washington native currently based in Utah, where he shot part of Omaha, Webley frequently explores themes of family and connection despite differences in his work. He spent his formative years running a paper route and attending wrestling tournaments before beginning to direct commercials and short films. In 2021, his commercial “The Epidemic” won the AICP Advertising Excellence...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 4/2/2025
  • by Matt Grobar
  • Deadline Film + TV
Image
‘Köln 75’ Star John Magaro on Being “a Working Class Actor,” Owing So Much to James Gandolfini
Image
John Magaro is the kind of actor you discover, like a personal secret. Maybe he first caught your eye in The Big Short, as the geeky stand out among a pack of slick, self-interested traders; grabbed you as Yael Stone’s dreamy prison pen pal in Orange Is the New Black love story, or won you over as Arthur, in Celine Song’s Past Lives, as the husband on the outside looking in as his wife Nora (Greta Lee) reunites and rekindles with her childhood friend from Korea. I first spotted him playing a New Jersey drummer desperate to make it big in David Chase’s Not Fade Away (2012), but my come-to-Magaro moment was his performance as Cookie in Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow. His quietly devastating depiction of male friendship and quiet yearning was the on-screen standout of 2019.

More recently, Magaro has been getting attention for Oscar contender September 5, where he plays a U.
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 2/14/2025
  • by Scott Roxborough
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Image
Sundance 2025 Review: Omaha, Poignant Character- and Performance-Driven Family Drama
Image
For the disheveled, unnamed father in first-time feature-length director Cole Webley and writer Robert Machoian’s (The Killing of Two Lovers) poignant family drama, Omaha, a new dawn brings a new, ominous day. Awakening first his 6-year-old son, Charlie (Wyatt Solis), and then his 9-year-old daughter, Ella (Molly Belle Wright), from slumber, he invokes the promise of a family trip, a chance to re-bond after the unexpected loss of Charlie and Ella’s mother, as well as a downturn in the family’s finances. Before the father – here left unnamed to emphasize his symbolic, everyday dad status – can pack up what’s left of their prized possessions, including the family dog, a well-behaved Golden Retriever, in their...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
See full article at Screen Anarchy
  • 2/7/2025
  • Screen Anarchy
Stephen Cole Webley
Omaha (2025) ‘Sundance’ Movie Review: John Magaro is Quietly Devastating in This Somber Drama about a Father in an Existential Crisis
Stephen Cole Webley
Cole Webley’s “Omaha” (2025) is about fatherhood, loss, and change. However, the script doesn’t explicitly talk about any of it. Instead, it drip-feeds information throughout the film’s duration. It begins with a father (John Magaro) waking up at dawn and getting his kids out of bed to leave home shortly after. He asks them to pack some things but doesn’t share any specific details as to where they are going or why they are leaving home all of a sudden. Still, it seems sudden since the kids are not prepared for any of it.

The father brings the kids to the car as he has a word with a local sheriff. As an audience, we see these events mainly through the daughter, Ella’s (Molly Belle Wright) perspective. Her observant eyes sense her dad’s anxiety but cannot hear any of what he speaks. As they start driving,...
See full article at High on Films
  • 2/6/2025
  • by Akash Deshpande
  • High on Films
Stephen Cole Webley
Omaha - Amber Wilkinson - 19528
Stephen Cole Webley
There were several small but resonant dramas at Sundance this year and Cole Webley’s debut is the encapsulation of the concept. Scripted by Robert Machoian - who previously wrote and directed the equally observant family drama The Killing Of Two Lovers - it takes us on a difficult road trip across the US with a grieving dad (John Magaro), his young daughter Ella (Molly Belle Wright), even younger son Charlie (Wyatt Solis) and smiling soul of a golden retriever Rex.

The reasons for the trip are revealed late in the film but it’s obvious from the outset that they can’t be good. Dad wakes the kids early, asking Ella to pick her favourite things, before bundling them into their ageing family car, which then needs to be push-started, an eviction notice evident on the door they are leaving behind.

Dad frames this as a sort of adventure,...
See full article at eyeforfilm.co.uk
  • 2/5/2025
  • by Amber Wilkinson
  • eyeforfilm.co.uk
'Omaha' Review: A Sad Road Trip with a Perfect John Magaro
Image
The American road trip has long been a cinematic metaphor for self-discovery, transformation, and the pursuit of something just out of reach. But in Omaha, Cole Webley’s understated and deeply felt feature debut, the road is not a journey toward hope or reinvention — it is a slow, painful realization that there is no safety net left in a country that has failed its most vulnerable.

A father (John Magaro) takes his two children, Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and Charlie (Wyatt Solis), on a cross-country trip after losing their home to foreclosure. But Omaha is not about reinvention, nor does it indulge in the romanticism of new beginnings. Instead, it is a meditation on survival in a nation where policies have all but abandoned struggling families, forcing them into impossible choices.

This is not a sentimental film. Webley and screenwriter Robert Machoian strip away any grand gestures of redemption, instead capturing the intimate,...
See full article at MovieWeb
  • 2/4/2025
  • by Kai Swanson
  • MovieWeb
Sundance Review: In Omaha, a Desperate Dad Takes His Kids On an Unexpected Road Trip
Image
Early one morning, a single father and widower (John Magaro)––credited as Dad––wakes up his perceptive nine-year-old Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and mischievous six-year-old Charlie (Wyatt Solis) and asks them to pack a suitcase as quickly as they can. Everyone is a bit groggy, but they load the car (including their golden retriever Rex) just as a police officer comes to staple an eviction notice on the front door. With a running push in neutral (a familiar routine), Dad and Ella get his clunker revved and started, and soon they’re on their way. Where are they going? The kids––and we––are left to figure that out.

Quiet and heartbreaking, if not slightly conventional, Omaha unfolds like a slow-burning mystery, mostly taking Ella’s skeptical, worried perspective as she tries piecing together clues about this unexpected family road trip. Soon things come into sharper, painful focus. Escaping from their Utah home,...
See full article at The Film Stage
  • 2/4/2025
  • by Jake Kring-Schreifels
  • The Film Stage
“Compassion Should Rule the Day, Not Punishment”: Director Cole Webley on His Sundance-Premiering Drama, Omaha
Image
A family of four—an unnamed Dad (John Magaro), his children Ella and Charlie (Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis), and their Golden Retriever—hit the road at the start of Omaha, towards Nebraska. We don’t get to know too much about them at first—just that they have an old car that needs a little push, and they’ve been evicted from their home, forced to collect their most treasured possessions quickly, like they are saving memorabilia during a fire. We don’t even know why they are heading there. Cole Webley’s deeply compassionate gut-punch of a movie, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic […]

The post “Compassion Should Rule the Day, Not Punishment”: Director Cole Webley on His Sundance-Premiering Drama, Omaha first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
  • 1/31/2025
  • by Tomris Laffly
  • Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“Compassion Should Rule the Day, Not Punishment”: Director Cole Webley on His Sundance-Premiering Drama, Omaha
Image
A family of four—an unnamed Dad (John Magaro), his children Ella and Charlie (Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis), and their Golden Retriever—hit the road at the start of Omaha, towards Nebraska. We don’t get to know too much about them at first—just that they have an old car that needs a little push, and they’ve been evicted from their home, forced to collect their most treasured possessions quickly, like they are saving memorabilia during a fire. We don’t even know why they are heading there. Cole Webley’s deeply compassionate gut-punch of a movie, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic […]

The post “Compassion Should Rule the Day, Not Punishment”: Director Cole Webley on His Sundance-Premiering Drama, Omaha first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
  • 1/31/2025
  • by Tomris Laffly
  • Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
First-Time Filmmaker Cole Webley Gets Why ‘Omaha’ Will ‘Not Be for Every Human Out There’
Image
“Omaha” is not just the favorite audible call of Eli and Peyton Manning or the most populous city in our 37th state of Nebraska, it is also Cole Webley’s feature-film directorial debut.

Webley, previously known for his TV commercials, called Robert Machoian’s “Omaha” script “incredible.” He was specifically struck by the screenplay’s “purity,” Webley said in the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox.

“When I read the script — an incredible script by Robert Machoian — I had been developing several others that I thought would be my first movie,” Webley told our Kate Erbland. “This one hit me so clearly…the purity of this script. When you’re in this business, when a script comes along that everybody knows just needs to be made into a film, the writing’s on the wall.”

“We saw that almost immediately,” he continued, “and we pivoted and said, ‘Why are we trying...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 1/30/2025
  • by Tony Maglio and Kate Erbland
  • Indiewire
‘Omaha’ Star John Magaro Shares the ‘Worst Thing You Can Do’ as an Auditioning Actor
Image
“Omaha” lead John Magaro was 28 when he bombed on his audition for David Chase’s “Not Fade Away,” the actor said during a fireside chat at the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox. Well, actually, his original tryout went very well — it was the callback that was a disaster. Why? Magaro says he failed by doing “the worst thing you can do” as an auditioning actor.

“I was continuing to do the same thing. I was doing what I thought you were supposed to do as an actor — what other people were doing,” Magaro said. “And at the time, there was a thing — and I don’t know if they do this anymore — but I remember getting casting notices, like— you would get an audition from the casting director and [it would read]: ‘Jesse Eisenberg-type.’ ‘Michael Cera-type.’ And I’d be like, well just cast them.” Don’t say that. It...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 1/28/2025
  • by Tony Maglio and Chris O'Falt
  • Indiewire
Omaha Review: A Quietly Devastating Portrait of Family and Loss
Image
Cole Webley’s film opens with a quiet tension that feels deeply personal. A widowed father, portrayed by John Magaro with subtle pain, wakes his two young children and guides them into an old car, their uncertain path heavy with unspoken struggle. Against the stark backdrop of the 2008 economic crisis, the story tracks their movement from a seized home in the Southwest to Omaha, Nebraska—a destination as mysterious as the father’s silent motivations.

On the surface, this appears like a simple road trip—filled with cheap gas station trinkets, quick meals, and brief sparks of childhood happiness. Beneath this exterior lies a stark exploration of family fragility, grief’s deep weight, and the disintegrating myth of shared national hope.

The film premiered at Sundance, quietly capturing audience attention through its restrained storytelling. Webley’s direction feels both unflinching and compassionate, capturing the stark, empty American terrain while keeping...
See full article at Gazettely
  • 1/27/2025
  • by Shahrbanoo Golmohamadi
  • Gazettely
Sundance 2024: Omaha, Seeds, The Dating Game
Image
A Brigham Young University graduate and longtime Utah resident, Cole Webley’s repeatedly testified how much it means to have his debut feature premiere here after years of rejected shorts. The Utah runs deep in Omaha, whose opening minutes seem to take place in, if not the exact neighborhood, a dead ringer for the suburban setting of fellow Byu alum and screenwriter Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers. One morning a father (John Magaro) wakes adolescent daughter Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and even younger son Charlie (Wyatt Solis), piles them and adorable golden retriever Rex into the car, and gets […]

The post Sundance 2024: Omaha, Seeds, The Dating Game first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
  • 1/25/2025
  • by Vadim Rizov
  • Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Sundance 2024: Omaha, Seeds, The Dating Game
Image
A Brigham Young University graduate and longtime Utah resident, Cole Webley’s repeatedly testified how much it means to have his debut feature premiere here after years of rejected shorts. The Utah runs deep in Omaha, whose opening minutes seem to take place in, if not the exact neighborhood, a dead ringer for the suburban setting of fellow Byu alum and screenwriter Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers. One morning a father (John Magaro) wakes adolescent daughter Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and even younger son Charlie (Wyatt Solis), piles them and adorable golden retriever Rex into the car, and gets […]

The post Sundance 2024: Omaha, Seeds, The Dating Game first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
  • 1/25/2025
  • by Vadim Rizov
  • Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
‘Omaha’ Review: This Year’s Sundance Road Trip Movie is Depressingly Impressive
Image
There are many longstanding traditions in this entertainment industry of ours, and one of them — not necessarily the greatest, but certainly one of them — is the Sundance Road Trip Movie. Independent films about families and/or mismatched associates on a lengthy trek around the country or the world, in which a series of adventures and/or misadventures usually prove that the journey was just as important as the destination. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s sad, but always it screams “Sundance.”

Not every Sundance has a Sundance Road Trip Movie, but the festival just wouldn’t be the same without films like “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Paris, Texas,” “Y tu mamá también,” “Smoke Signals,” “Tumbleweeds,” “The Motorcycle Diaries,” “A Real Pain,” “The Puffy Chair,” “Wristcutters: A Love Story,” “The End of the Tour,” “Will & Harper” or “The Brave Little Toaster.” And now, joining that legacy is Cole Webley’s “Omaha,...
See full article at The Wrap
  • 1/25/2025
  • by William Bibbiani
  • The Wrap
Stephen Cole Webley
Omaha review – John Magaro leads lean but affecting family drama
Stephen Cole Webley
Sundance film festival: The Past Lives and September 5 actor leads a beautifully made, if slightly too withholding, road-trip drama

Omaha, Cole Webley’s debut film from a screenplay by Robert Machoian (The Killing of Two Lovers), is very much a product of the Sundance film festival, both literally – the duo first connected here – and, for better and occasionally for worse, in tone. Spare, elegiac, quiet but affecting, this John Magaro-led character study is, fittingly, filmed and mostly set in the festival’s home state (for now) of Utah. It’s a tense family drama that mostly keeps its cards close to the chest and an ode, at least visually, to the liminal, fragile states one can enter on the road in the American west.

The bedsheets are still warm and the dawn light still pale when Ella, played by remarkable newcomer Molly Belle Wright, and her younger brother Charlie...
See full article at The Guardian - Film News
  • 1/25/2025
  • by Adrian Horton in Park City, Utah
  • The Guardian - Film News
‘Omaha’ Review: Intimate Road Trip Drama About a Father in Crisis Exudes Visual Lyricism and Emotional Honesty
Image
In the moving Sundance drama “Omaha,” the bedsheets are still warm when the life of a family is thrown into disarray on the morning they are mandated to vacate their home. The mother’s passing and the 2008 financial collapse contributed to the precariousness that’s put them in this predicament. Few belongings will accompany them on their road trip to an uncertain future.

In the driver seat of a barely functional car, a remarkably subdued John Magaro plays a widower and single father who, for most of the running time, is referred to simply as Dad. His perceptive 9-year-old daughter Ella (Molly Belle Wright) helps him push the moribund vehicle on the passenger side so it can start. From the look of it, they’ve done this plenty of times before, as the routine of a shared burden communicates the kids’ unconditional support for a parent desperately doing his best.
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Carlos Aguilar
  • Variety Film + TV
Image
‘Omaha’ Review: John Magaro Is Heartbreaking in Slender but Affecting Drama About Grief and Fatherhood
Image
It’s enormously gratifying to see John Magaro in a solo leading role. While he was one point of the love triangle in Past Lives, a joint lead in September 5 and First Cow, and an ensemble standout in Showing Up, seldom has this undervalued actor been given the opportunity to carry a film to the extent he does in Omaha. Scripted by The Killing of Two Lovers writer-director Robert Machoian, Cole Webley’s debut feature aims for a similar stripped-down rawness in its account of a bereaved father facing desperate choices.

Gentle to a fault, the drama for much of its running time has a weightlessness familiar from many Sundance movies, an impression amplified in the delicate score by Christopher Bear, formerly of the indie rock band Grizzly Bear, and in a sprinkling of hushed vocal tracks. It’s also there in the expressive use of landscape, with unspoken feelings...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 1/23/2025
  • by David Rooney
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘Omaha’ Review: John Magaro On A Father’s Desperate Journey With His Kids – Sundance Film Festival
Image
Kicking off the Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Competition this year is Omaha, an increasingly bleak road trip with a recently widowed father, his two kids and their dog. Set against the 2008 financial crisis, Omaha begins with a dad (John Magaro) facing foreclosure on his house after losing what appears to be everything professionally as well as the tragic death of his wife and mother to their two kids, Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and Charlie (Wyatt Solis).

As the film begins, he faces this latest crisis and gathers up the kids and their pet dog to jump into the increasingly unreliable family car, which usually only starts and gets going as Ella runs alongside and helps push it forward. And so they are off on an unspecified journey across the American Southwest with stops along the way that begin to explain — however subtly — this dad’s deep money problems. There’s...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Pete Hammond
  • Deadline Film + TV
“It Was the Movie I’d Been Waiting For”: Dp Paul Meyers on Omaha
Image
Sundance 2025 U.S. Dramatic Competition entry Omaha follows a father and his two young children on a cross-country journey that follows an unexpected family tragedy. The film is the feature debut of Cole Webley after a series of shorts and commercials. Making the leap to features alongside Webley is his frequent partner Paul Meyers, who served as Dp on Omaha. Below, Meyers elaborates on the challenges of shooting a film with child actors and how it necessitated an ingenious solution to a day-for-night sequence. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]

The post “It Was the Movie I’d Been Waiting For”: Dp Paul Meyers on Omaha first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Filmmaker Staff
  • Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
“It Was the Movie I’d Been Waiting For”: Dp Paul Meyers on Omaha
Image
Sundance 2025 U.S. Dramatic Competition entry Omaha follows a father and his two young children on a cross-country journey that follows an unexpected family tragedy. The film is the feature debut of Cole Webley after a series of shorts and commercials. Making the leap to features alongside Webley is his frequent partner Paul Meyers, who served as Dp on Omaha. Below, Meyers elaborates on the challenges of shooting a film with child actors and how it necessitated an ingenious solution to a day-for-night sequence. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up […]

The post “It Was the Movie I’d Been Waiting For”: Dp Paul Meyers on Omaha first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
See full article at Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
  • 1/23/2025
  • by Filmmaker Staff
  • Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Image
Sundance in Cincinnati? Hollywood Worries Film Festival Won’t Be the Same Without Park City
Image
Cole Webley, a Salt Lake City-based director, spent decades dreaming of premiering one of his films in Park City. The Utah native has attended the Sundance Film Festival for nearly 20 years, waiting in long lines as the snow fell around him, shivering in the cold in hopes of catching a hot new movie. He’d also tried and failed to get five of his short films into competition.

“To say that I had an affinity towards the festival would be an understatement,” Webley says. “It’s been the pinnacle of what I had hoped to achieve.”

This year, Webley finally gets his wish. “Omaha,” a drama about a struggling father embarking on a cross-country trip with his two daughters, will debut on the first day of Sundance. The inclusion of “Omaha” is meaningful to him in other ways. The film was largely shot around Utah with a local crew, so...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 1/22/2025
  • by Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin
  • Variety Film + TV
Kate Berlant at an event for The White Lotus (2021)
Vimeo Staff Picks: How to Get Your Film Seen By Hollywood Producers and Brands
Kate Berlant at an event for The White Lotus (2021)
With more than 240 million monthly viewers, Vimeo has grown into one of the best online platforms for filmmakers to share their work with the world and discover other talented artists. The site’s flagship channel, Vimeo Staff Picks, features the best videos on Vimeo, and is billed as a “never-ending film festival” that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The benefit of a Staff Pick can be getting your short film, music video or other short form work seen by production companies, advertising agencies and brands looking for emerging talent. Filmmaker Patrick Jean’s short film “Pixels” was chosen as a Staff Pick, went viral, and attracted the attention of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, which hired Patrick to direct the feature-length version. Though Happy Madison ultimately brought Chris Columbus on board to direct, Patrick stayed on as an executive producer and co-writer of the script.

Timelapse cinematographer Drew Geraci’s “District Nights” similarly landed him a job shooting the opening credits sequence for Netflix’s “House of Cards,” while Daniel Mercadante’s two-minute short “Laughs” led to Volkswagen hiring him to shoot a second version for a TV commercial. Other Staff Picks alumni who have gained critical exposure through Vimeo include “Swiss Army Man” co-directors the Daniels (12 Staff Picks) and “Kong: Skull Island” filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts (2 Staff Picks).

Read More: John Early and Kate Berlant’s ‘555’ Just Raised the Bar for Every Short Form Comedy Ever

Curated by a five-person in-house team, Staff Picks is comprised of the core verticals of Drama, Comedy, Action Sports and Documentary, and also includes Music Video, Animation, Travel and Eye Candy. Vimeo selects around four Staff Picks per day and features the videos on its homepage. Out of the tens of millions of videos uploaded to Vimeo on a yearly basis, roughly 1,000 are chosen as Staff Picks. The site also selects around 10 “Best of the Month” videos per month.

Though Staff Picks are free to watch, Vimeo on Demand offers filmmakers a way to monetize their work via a 90/10 split, with 90 percent of revenue going to the creators. Launched in 2013, the site’s VOD content features more than 50,000 videos with more than 1 million paying customers. If a filmmaker wants to earn revenue off of his or her Vimeo Staff Pick, the film can be moved to the subscription-only platform.

So how can you secure a coveted Vimeo Staff Picks badge for your film? Here are five key factors paraphrased from a presentation by Meghan Oretsky, one of the company’s five curators, during an event at the company’s New York office.

Exceptional craft

Staff Picks should look good and sound amazing, but filmmakers should also ask themselves whether their work innovates and pushes the medium to a new level. Check out “Analogue Loaders” by from Raphael Vangelis.

Conversation starting

To get people talking about a short film, it should present provocative ideas and visuals that ideally appeal to a millennial audience. Vimeo knows a video is a winner when the curators anticipate it being shared and sparking conversations amongst friends. Check out “Black Holes” by Noodles.

Engaging storytelling

Stories should draw the viewer in, elicit an emotional response and ultimately be something that people want to the share with their friends. A good example is the short film “Con Amor” by Cole Webley.

Originality

Vimeo creators should have a unique style and story. A good question to ask is, have we seen this story told time and time again? If so, are they bringing any new ideas or a new voice to the genre? Check out Ilya Naishuller’s music video for Leningrad’s “Kolshick.”

Read More: Danny Devito’s Short Film ‘Curmudgeons’ Launches Vimeo’s Staff Pick Premieres

Diverse Voices

Vimeo’s curators attend niche festivals in order to find content from female filmmakers, the Lgbtq community, people with disabilities, the indigenous community and more. Check out David M. Helman’s music video for Michael Kiwanuka “Cold Little Heart.”

Stay on top of the latest in gear and filmmaking news! Sign up for the Indiewire Toolkit newsletter here.

Related storiesThe Digital Black Market: How A Festival Used Copyright Laws To Sell The Films It ScreenedJohn Early and Kate Berlant's '555' Just Raised the Bar for Every Short Form Comedy EverJohn Early & Kate Berlant Arrive in Vimeo Series '555' -- Watch the New Trailer...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 6/22/2017
  • by Graham Winfrey
  • Indiewire
Chase McGuire... Got the Part!
Not many actors get to play the lead in their first film role, and not many have the chance to discover the depths of emotion required to take on such roles. But that's what happened to Chase McGuire, who booked the role of Josh in the short film "Birdland" by writer-director Cole Webley.Fresh out of high school, McGuire enrolled in the acting program at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif., and his teacher, Jill Newton, recommended that he subscribe to Back Stage. "Birdland" was the first casting notice he submitted for. He was thrilled to not only get the audition but also to book the role. "I always want to do everything," McGuire says of his choice to pursue acting. "A professional snowboarder, a Marine, a firefighter, a musician—[an actor] can actually lead all these different lives." At his audition, McGuire started off a bit shaky, forgetting his first...
See full article at backstage.com
  • 2/4/2011
  • backstage.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.

More from this person

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
Follow IMDb on social
Get the IMDb App
For Android and iOS
Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • License IMDb Data
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.