Winner (2024 film)

Winner is a 2024 black comedy drama film directed by Susanna Fogel and written by Kerry Howley. The film stars Emilia Jones as Reality Winner. It also stars Connie Britton, Danny Ramirez, Kathryn Newton and Zach Galifianakis.

Winner
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Susanna Fogel
Screenplay by	Kerry Howley
Based on	"Who Is Reality Winner?" by Kerry Howley
Produced by	Amanda Phillips Susanna Fogel Shivani Rawat Julie Goldstein Scott Budnick Ameet Shukla
Starring	Emilia Jones Connie Britton Danny Ramirez Kathryn Newton Zach Galifianakis
Cinematography	Steve Yedlin
Edited by	Joseph Krings
Music by	Heather McIntosh
Production companies	Big Beach ShivHans Pictures 1Community
Distributed by	Vertical
Release dates	January 20, 2024 (2024-01-20) (Sundance) September 13, 2024 (2024-09-13) (United States)
Running time	103 minutes[1]
Countries	Canada United States
Language	English

It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024, and was released on September 13, 2024, by Vertical.

Synopsis

The film is based on the life of Reality Winner, who leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.^[2]

Cast

• Emilia Jones as Reality Winner
  • Annelise Pollmann as young Reality
• Kathryn Newton as Brittany Winner, Reality's sister
  • Averie Peters as young Brittany
• Connie Britton as Billie Winner, Reality and Brittany's mother
• Zach Galifianakis as Ron Winner, Reality and Brittany's father
• Danny Ramirez as Andre
• Shannon Berry as KayLee Thompson

Production

Described as a darkly comedic biopic, Emilia Jones was confirmed to be portraying the whistle-blower Reality Winner from a script written by Kerry Howley based on her own 2017 New York magazine feature, "Who Is Reality Winner?," with Susanna Fogel also on board to direct.^[3] It marks the second collaboration between Fogel and Jones following Cat Person.^[4]

Casting

In October 2022, it was confirmed that principal photography had started with Connie Britton and Zach Galifianakis playing Winner’s parents and Kathryn Newton as her sister.^[5] In May 2023, it was revealed Shannon Berry was part of the cast.^[6]

Filming

Filming started around the areas in Winnipeg and elsewhere in Manitoba,^[7][8] and was wrapped in November 21, 2022.

Release

The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024.^[9] In May 2024, Vertical acquired distribution rights to the film.^[10] It was released on September 13, 2024.^[11]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 36 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The website's consensus reads: "Susanna Fogel's comprehensive take on this true story has some rooting interest thanks in part to Emilia Jones' engaging performance, but a discordantly jaunty tone keeps it from being a real winner."^[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[13]

See also

• Reality (2023), another film based on Reality Winner.