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The Lion

A surreal dark comedy stars Judith Roberts who played Beautiful Girl across the Hall in David Lynch's Eraserhead and Jo's Mum in Ramsey's You Were Never Really Here. THE LION features Katherine, (Miss Roberts), who wins a Make a Wish Contest. Her wish? To pet the lion at the zoo. Katherine’s cathartic adventure is a unique combination of live action and stop motion animation that uses direct address, an eclectic landscape of objects, dioramas, photographs that come alive, and a small toy theater built into a wall that becomes the lion’s cage. The story resonates for us as a tale about loss, about looking that “lion in the eye,” and ultimately a reminder of how it’s our story that can heal us.

  • Abigail Zealey Bess
    Director
    Icarus Stops for Breakfast, Mary and Louise, Here's what I like (web series), Play Ball! A trillogy of Baseball films, The Launch.
  • Kira Oblensky
    Writer
  • Kira Oblensky
    Producer
  • Irve Dell
    Producer
  • Judith Roberts
    Producer
  • Abigail Zealey Bess
    Producer
  • Lynn Barnhouse
    Producer
  • Shane Marshall Brown
    Producer
  • Robert Convertino
    Producer
  • Mary Beidler Gearen
    Producer
  • Susan Eve Haar
    Producer
  • Lorraine Hart
    Producer
  • The Minneapolis Foundation
    Producer
  • Judith Roberts
    Key Cast
    "Katherine "
    Eraserhead, You Were Never Really Here,Dead Silence, 2 Broke Girls, Orange is the New Black, countless roles in NY Theater, Broadway and OFF
  • Alan McIntyre Smith
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Comedy
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 38 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 31, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Durango Independant Film Festival
    Durango
    United States
    March 4, 2026
    North American Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Abigail Zealey Bess

Abigail Zealey Bess, is an award-winning filmmaker, theatre director and educator. She has been directing theatre and film for over 35 years, specializing in new work since she arrived on these shores from London and established her film company, Weird Sisters, which began as a theatrical entity over 25 years ago.
Under the auspices of her company she has developed numerous projects in collaboration with many writers both established and newly emerging on the New York scene.
Her debut film, the award-winning baseball trilogy: Play Ball! (Fanfare for A Common Man, Random Acts of Intimacy, Caught in Time) screened throughout the globe including the Berlin Film Festival, Cannes Director Fortnight, and at over 40 festivals internationally.
Recent projects include award-winning films Mary and Louise, Icarus Stops For Breakfast @IcarusBreakfast which won over 30 Best Film Awards on the 2020/21 International film festival circuit.
Her latest film is The Lion starring the Iconic Judith Roberts whose numerous credits include Beautiful Girl across the Hall in Lynch’s Eraserhead, Jo's Mum in Lynn Ramsey's You were never really Here, Dead Silence, Orange is the New Black in addition to numerous credits on Broadway.

As a long-standing member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre based in New York, one of the leading developmental theatres of new plays in the USA, she has directed and produced numerous new works home and abroad.
NY Theatres where she has worked include The Foundry Theatre, Ohio Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Here, Cort Theatre, Broadway, and internationally the Edinburgh Festival, the Young Vic, the Strand Theatre, London.
Recent Theatre Credits: Bonkers in the Boroughs by Joy Behar ‘23, One woman shows - I came back for Molly by Molly Carden ‘23,24 Elephant Woman by Megan Metrikan ’23 at the Tank, The Radicalization of Rolfe, Award-winning NY Fringe Winner by Andy Burgh at the Players Theatre, the Soho Playhouse’16, Paper Doll by Susan Eve Haar at the Edinburgh Fringe’17, Leviticus, Edinburgh Fringe ‘18 with Sawyer Spielberg’s Theatre Company, WATG, Spring Awakening, the Musical at NJ Shakespeare Theatre and Saugerties by SEH with Chad L. Coleman and Beau Garret at Hudson Guild Th in LA 2019. Saugerties under its new name Echo will be making it's London Debut in London June 2025.

She continues to head Weird Sisters developing feature film projects and theatrical ventures in NY, Regionally and in Europe devoted to the promotion of prolific women artists and writers giving voice to new thought-provoking work.

She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, Cinefemme, SDC, Actors Studio PDU, NYWIFT.
She teaches on the Faculty for the Graduate Film Program at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, and Columbia University.

Website: www.weirdsistersfilms.com

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The Lion is a film very close to my heart for many reasons and has a long history behind bringing it to fruition as in the film medium. It all started about 15 years ago when Judith Roberts asked me if I would be interested in directing her in this one woman show called The Lion. Of course I leapt at the chance to work with this iconic Actress who is a dream of a human being and can play anything. Did you see her in Lynch's Eraserhead and Jo's Mum in Ramsey's You Were Never Really Here?
So we did the Play at The Tank Theatre in New York and as we rehearsed I said "You know Judith this would make a great film, we should think about doing that one day." She of course agreed. So we said this over the next 7 years to each other over and over again....and then... the pandemic happened.
And well you know the rest - so we made the film in the pandemic and here it is bringing together the rich talents of Kira Obelensky the writer, Irve Dell the incredible stop motion animator and props maker, our dream cinematographer Alan Smith McIntyre and of course the Iconic Judith Roberts.
I hope you will get as much joy from watching it as we did from making it.
With Love
Abigail Zealey Bess
Director
Weird Sisters