The fantasy short film “Em and Selma Go Griffin Hunting,” which has garnered awards and buzz since premiering at Sundance earlier this year, is backed by two experienced genre filmmakers.
Roy Lee (Weapons, The Barbarian, It) and Steven Schneider (The Long Walk, Strange Darlings, Late Night with the Devil) are attached to executive produce the short under the Spooky Pictures label.
Written and directed by Alexander Thompson, Em and Thelma Go Griffin Hunting is set in 1930s Depression-era America, and stars Pollyanna McIntosh (The Walking Dead) and Tony Award winner Milly Shapiro (Hereditary) as a mother-daughter duo who clash during a sacred rite of passage hunt for a mythical beast.
The film has received great praise in the industry for its unique visual style and tone. The filmmakers spent four years in post-production, with Thompson directly supervising a small team of carefully selected international visual effects artists to bring the film’s titular creature to life. Since Sundance, the film has played at nearly 50 film festivals and won more than 20 awards, most recently winning Best Director at the 2025 FilmQuest Festival.
“In all the time we’ve shared in this industry, we’ve never seen anything quite like ‘Em and Selma Go Griffin Hunting,'” Lee and Schneider said. “Thompson has brought together unexpected and disparate sources of inspiration to create a film whose vision feels completely original and singular, a rare feat for most features, let alone an 18-minute short. The singularity of the craftsmanship and world-building is astounding, and the award-winning We’re excited to help give this film the boost it deserves heading into the season. We look forward to seeing great things from Thompson and his team in the future, and are thrilled to have been able to witness the beginning of this visionary’s journey.” ”
Thompson added: “The entire team is extremely excited and grateful for Roy and Stephen’s support. ‘M & Selma’ has been a six-month obsession that has taught me many wonderful and painful lessons, and I can’t wait to continue growing together. They have introduced me to many essential new collaborators and I am humbled that Roy and Stephen are now part of the small cadre of brave souls who have helped bring our strange little mother-daughter fable to a wider audience.” Audience. ”
“Em and Selma Go Griffin Hunting” is executive produced by Brooklyn Reptile Productions’ Roger M. Mayer, Zeus Pictures’ Russell Sanzgiri and Zeus Kontoiannis, and Strange Customs’ Pierce Kurgo and Joseph Zentil. Thompson is repped by IAG, Redshift Management and Myman Greenspan.
