NEON acquires Amy Seimetz’s SXSW hit ‘She Dies Tomorrow’

Erik Anderson March 25, 2020

Kate Sheil in SHE DIES TOMORROW by Amy Seimetz (Photo: Jay Keitel)

NEON announced today that they have acquired worldwide rights to Amy Seimetz’s apocalyptic existential thriller She Dies Tomorrow, an official selection of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. Inadvertently prescient and blazingly original, the film was one of the most buzzed-about titles coming out of this year’s festival-that-never-was.

She Dies Tomorrow stars Seimetz’s frequent collaborator Kate Lyn Sheil (Sun Don’t Shine) as Amy, a woman ravaged by the notion that she is going to die tomorrow which sends her down a dizzying emotional spiral. When Amy’s skeptical friend Jane (Jane Adams, Happiness) discovers Amy’s feeling of imminent death to be contagious, they both begin bizarre journeys through what might be the last day of their lives. In equal measures a genre film, a dark comedy, and surrealist mind trip, She Dies Tomorrow defies definition and is the unique vision of Seimetz (Sun Don’t Shine, The Girlfriend Experience).

She Dies Tomorrow had critics under its spell following screenings of the film, with Indiewire’s Eric Kohn noting that the film “combines classic David Cronenberg body horror and with the scathing surrealism of Luis Buñuel,” Screen Daily’s Tim Grierson calling the film “an enigmatic drama that flirts with psychological horror and absurdist comedy,” and RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico praising the film as “brilliant, riveting,” among many other laudatory remarks from press.

NEON stated, “Amy Seimetz is a bold new voice and with the groundbreaking She Dies Tomorrow has easily created one of the most prescient films of the decade. We’re thrilled to be able to bring this unique and incredible SXSW premiere to audiences all around the world.”

“I’m very proud to be joining the illustrious NEON family. Tom Quinn has impeccable taste and has also been at the forefront of innovative theatrical and digital distribution for many years. I look forward to collaborating with him and the entire NEON team on sharing She Dies Tomorrow with the world.”

The film is Amy Seimetz’ second feature film as a writer-director. Sun Don’t Shine, her directorial debut, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2012, and was nominated for two Gotham Awards. In 2015, Seimetz co-created and executive produced the critically acclaimed Starz series The Girlfriend Experience. Among her other television work, Seimetz directed two episodes of the acclaimed FX series Atlanta in 2018.

She Dies Tomorrow is produced by Seimetz and Rustic Films’ trio David Lawson Jr., Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The film co-stars Kentucker Audley (Sun Don’t Shine) and features cameo appearances by Chris Messina (Argo), Katie Aselton (The Gift), Tunde Adebimpe (Rachel Getting Married), Jennifer Kim (Black Bear), Josh Lucas (Ford v Ferrari), Olivia Taylor Dudley (The Magicians), and Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious).

Jeff Deutchman negotiated the deal for NEON with XYZ Films’ Pip Ngo, on behalf of the filmmakers. She Dies Tomorrow will be released by NEON, with release plans to be announced at a later date.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.