Willa has acquired U.S. distribution rights to writer/director Liz Sargent’s debut feature, Take Me Home.
Take Me Home premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival and had its international premiere in Perspective Competition at this year’s Berlinale.
In “Take Me Home,” Anna, a 38-year-old Korean adopted child, cares for her elderly parents in a precarious balance of meeting each other’s needs. When a Florida heatwave disrupts her family and Anna’s daily routine, her future is uncertain until she creates a world in which she can thrive. Sargent’s debut drama examines the changing demands placed on a unique and uniquely challenged family living in suburban Florida.
The cast includes newcomers Anna Sargent (the director’s sister) as Anna, Ari Anne, and Victor Slezak as her adoptive brother Emily and her father, who is hiding signs of dementia.
Developed from Sargent’s acclaimed short film (2023 Sundance Film Festival, supported by CAPE/Julia S. Gow Short Film Challenge with Janet Yang Prods), this film exposes the indignities of the American health care system and the structural challenges faced by people with disabilities.
Willa is planned for a theatrical release this fall with an impact campaign in partnership with Caring Across Generations, a leading national organization working to transform the systems and culture that supports care and care in the United States, and which also includes media company Give Not Take Media.
In 2025, “Take Me Home” won the world’s largest production award, a $1 million production award from Tribeca’s AT&T Untold Stories program. The film will have its New York premiere at the Tribeca Festival in June.
Produced and executive produced by Apoorva Guru Charan (Joyland, one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch in 2026), Minos Papas (Mother Witch, short story Take Me Home), Sgt. Producers include Give Not Take Media’s Aijen Poo and Lydia Story, Tribeca Studios’ Jane Shin Park, Andrew Kim, Bryce Norbitz, Michelle Hamada, and Philippe. Engelhorn and Candace Sanchez MacFarlane for Cinereach, Bill Pohrad and Kelly Martin for River Road Entertainment, Elizabeth Woodward for Tomorrow’s Anita Bhatia Foundation and Willa and Janet Yang.
“‘Take Me Home’ is exactly the kind of film Willa is looking to support,” said Woodward, Willa’s founder and CEO. “Liz has created a film that is profoundly intimate, poignant, grounded in lived experience, yet has universal resonance. This film not only moves audiences, but also challenges us to engage with the systems that shape our lives.”
Director Sargent said, “We feel very fortunate to be working with a rare and intentional distribution team that understands the huge potential for this deeply personal film to connect with a wide audience. From the beginning, we believed this story would be a powerful underdog for a film that could open hearts and shift perspectives. Willa is exactly the team that will help realize that vision.”
Give Not Take Media, which served as executive producer on Take Me Home, will continue to partner with Willa to lead an impact campaign that extends the film’s themes beyond the screen, including community screenings and public conversations to connect the theatrical release with a national listening tour aimed at informing innovative solutions to the 130 million caregivers and their families who are struggling to afford and manage their care.
Willa will lead a multi-phase release strategy across theaters, awards and digital streaming platforms, with targeted community screenings, partnerships and policy-focused activations. Willa’s latest film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, grossed nearly $1 million at the North American box office, won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA.
