my dead friend zoe
Written by A. J. Bermudez & Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Directed & Produced by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Produced by Briarcliff Entertainment, Legion M, Radiant Media (2024)
Cast includes: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Gloria Ruben
SXSW: Audience Award - Best Narrative Feature
Woodstock Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize - Best Narrative Feature
Mill Valley: Audience Award - U.S. Cinema
MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit, a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe, her dead best friend from the Army.
Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor, the tough love of her mother and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit's cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit's estranged grandfather—holed up at the family's ancestral lake house—begins to lose his way and is in need of the one thing he refuses... help.
At its core, this is about a complicated friendship, a divided family and the complex ways in which we process grief.
MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE appeared at South by Southwest Film Festival, NY Latino Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Leiden International Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, Orcas Island Film Festival, and Newport Beach
media coverage
press
“Morgan Freeman, Gloria Reuben & Utkarsh Ambudkar Board Veteran Dramedy ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’”
Deadline
“AJ Bermudez Career Profile: From ‘Nightingale’ to ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’”
Creative Screenwriting Magazine
“The Story Behind My Dead Friend Zoe”
University of Miami News
praise
