Apple Original Films announced today it has secured worldwide rights to Fancy Dance, the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival Selection from Confluential Films which offers a nuanced account of the human costs of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic and the possibilities of healing for those left behind.
Marking the feature directorial debut of Erica Tremblay (“Reservation Dogs”), who also co-wrote the film alongside Miciana Alise and serves as a producer, Fancy Dance stars Killers of the Flower Moon award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actress Lily Gladstone as Jax, a woman who, since her sister’s disappearance, has cared for her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson – “Three Pines”) by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma. Every spare minute goes into finding her missing sister while also helping Roki prepare for an upcoming powwow. At the risk of losing custody to Jax’s father, Frank (Shea Whigham – Eileen, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One), the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. What begins as a search gradually turns into a far deeper investigation into the complexities and contradictions of Indigenous women moving through a colonized world and at the mercy of a failed justice system.
The ensemble cast is rounded out with Crystle Lightning (“Three Pines,” “Diggstown”) and Audrey Wasilewski (“Mad Men,” “Big Love”).
Fancy Dance, a Confluential Films and Significant Productions/AUM Group production, is produced by Deidre Backs, Erica Tremblay, Heather Rae, Nina Yang Bongiovi, and Tommy Oliver. Lily Gladstone, Bird Runningwater, Charlotte Koh, and Forest Whitaker serve as executive producers.
Following its debut at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, “Fancy Dance” is set to make its debut in theatres and on Apple TV+ this year.
