How Writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt and the Oscar-nominated Hair and Makeup Team Behind ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Twisted Cinderella Into a Gruesome Cautionary Tale [VIDEO INTERVIEW]
The story of Cinderella is a tale nearly as old as time, with hundreds of interpretations dating back to Ancient Greece and found around the world. The Brothers Grimm penned one of the darkest renditions, Aschenputtel (1812), illustrating the grief of a mother’s passing, a blood-soaked golden shoe, and blindness as punishment for wicked deeds. Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973), the Czechoslovak-East German film, represents another that writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt has rewatched yearly during the holidays. But instead of just mashing up these familiar stories, she offers a more personal vision through an unexpected perspective, creating a new adaptation that is both modern and timeless in her bold Oscar-nominated feature debut, The Ugly Stepsister.
In this current era of increasingly toxic and unrealistic beauty standards, medications and treatments can provide shortcuts to success; however, abuse is a slippery slope that can quickly lead to disastrous and irreversible results. Blichfeldt’s previous short films have examined the deleterious effects of body dysmorphia, but The Ugly Stepsister takes this to the next level. While aided by her mother, Elvira (Lea Myren in a haunting feature debut), the titular “ugly stepsister,” is hell-bent on marrying the prince and being the belle of the ball by any means necessary. Imagine the most grotesque makeover gone horribly wrong and that’s what Blichfeldt and the makeup team achieve through a remarkable range of lifelike, yet ghastly wigs, prosthetics, makeup, and practical effects. Anne Cathrine Sauerberg, the makeup designer, and Thomas Foldberg, the prosthetic makeup designer, make for an impressive award-winning team, having collaborated for over twenty-five years on multiple Danish film and television projects. By crafting such an unrelenting, gruesome transformation, complete with parasitic diet pill, primitive nose job, sewn-in eyelashes, and severed appendages, they have proven The Ugly Stepsister to be an instant body horror staple.
After a healthy international release following its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the film amassed a number of nominations and wins with critics groups and awards bodies, making it the first Danish-Norwegian film and team nominated at the Academy Awards in Makeup and Hairstyling. It may not be for the faint of heart, but its impressive artistry and unconventional approach to a widely-known tale make for an unforgettable, albeit squeamish viewing experience.
In our video conversation above, Blichfeldt, Foldberg, and Sauerberg discuss their collaboration process and how previous adaptations informed a newer, more authentic world. Blichfeldt further explains how she related to the sisters’ longing to fit in and allowed societal pressures to reshape these complex characters. Both makeup designers share how they developed Elvira’s looks, both in adding period correct pieces to provide a youthful, modest starting point and in removing them to accentuate her tragic descent. They each brought unique inspirations that converge in a delectable feast for the eyes.
The Ugly Stepsister was released by IFC Films and is available to stream on the Academy platform or watch on demand at home.
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How Writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt and the Oscar-nominated Hair and Makeup Team Behind ‘The Ugly Stepsister’ Twisted Cinderella Into a Gruesome Cautionary Tale [VIDEO INTERVIEW] 
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