{"id":1767,"date":"2025-08-26T21:28:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2025-08-27T20:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T20:22:08","slug":"splitsville-filmmakers-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/splitsville-filmmakers-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018Splitsville\u2019 Filmmakers Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino Went From Commercials to Cannes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino had a good thing going during their years working on commercials. But the longtime friends were pining to focus on narrative filmmaking. So, in between creating ads, they produced, wrote, and directed short films. After having 15 projects rejected by the Sundance Film Festival, their short \u201cThe Climb\u201d was accepted in 2018; it proved to be the catalyst for their dream career. The next year, they turned \u201cThe Climb\u201d into a feature. The pair co-wrote and co-starred in the film, with Covino directing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their sophomore cinematic effort \u201cSplitsville,\u201d again directed by Covino, features the duo starring opposite Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona. The movie revolves around two couples who explode into conflict when a distraught Carey (Marvin) learns his wife, Ashley (Arjona), wants a divorce, then sleeps with his best friend Paul\u2019s (Covino) wife, Julie (Johnson), after discovering the two are in an open relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s their advice on how to break into feature filmmaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go to festivals ready to pitch.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
\n
\"CANNES,
Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin .
Credit: Paul Smith \/ Featureflash<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When \u201cThe Climb\u201d got into Sundance, Marvin and Covino knew that there would be opportunities to talk to producers, studios, and production companies about their projects. \u201cRather than going to the festival to have a good time, we went with 12 or 13 pitches ready,\u201d says Covino. It was there that Topic Studios commissioned them to write the feature version of \u201cThe Climb.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marvin and Covino began shooting within six months, and \u201cThe Climb\u201d premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019, before being released in theaters by Sony in November 2020. \u201cTopic then signed us to a first-look deal, so we developed movies under them for a three-year period, one of which was \u2018Splitsville,\u2019 \u201d Covino says. After meeting Johnson at a film festival, they impressed her with the idea for \u201cSplitsville\u201d and sent her the script. She soon signed up to both appear in and co-produce, with Neon and Topic co-financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marvin can\u2019t help but lavish praise on Topic, calling them \u201cgreat partners.\u201d When asked whether filmmakers need to be patient to find a production company that matches their sensibilities, Marvin instead says they need to have tenacity. \u201cWe weren\u2019t really that patient,\u201d he admits, with Covino quickly adding, \u201cWe were working as hard as we could because there definitely wasn\u2019t any patience. The window of opportunity is so small. You have to be ready to go at a moment\u2019s notice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have numerous projects in the works.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Covino and Marvin are regularly working on around 50 ideas for different movies at any given time. \u201cWe\u2019ll come up with an idea for a movie, character, dynamic, scenario, logline, or title; jot it down really quickly; even bang out a quick outline; then say, \u2018OK, we can come back to that,\u2019 \u201d explains Covino.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSplitsville\u201d was born out of two scenes that Covino and Marvin kept returning to. One is the film\u2019s opening sequence, when a car crash provokes Carey and Ashley to have a candid discussion about their marriage. The second is the prolonged fight scene between Carey and Paul that occurs halfway through.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we pitched the film,\u201d says Covino. \u201cWe told them about the car crash, her asking for a divorce, him running away, showing up at his friend\u2019s house, learning about the open relationship, them sleeping together, the 10-minute fight. Then [we] said, \u2018You know what the movie is. Wherever it goes from there, that will be the framework,\u2019 \u201d recalls Covino.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adria
Adria Arjona and Kyle Marvin in \u201cSplitsville\u201d Courtesy Neon<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Be aware of the cinema landscape.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after they started making short films together, they were involved in the making of a \u201cbeautiful film that won the audience award at like 20 regional film festivals but never got into the big festivals or broke through,\u201d remembers Covino. While it was a short film that they were proud of and told a story that they wanted to tell, he adds that it \u201cwas disconnected from the landscape of the film industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t thinking about what programmers wanted to program or what audiences wanted to see. When it came out, I remember it felt like it was five or six years too late,\u201d he continues. The lesson they learned from this experience is that they needed to be \u201caware of the landscape of cinema and film, and know what\u2019s going on at least a little bit,\u201d says Covino.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that point on, they constantly kept up-to-date with what stories or genres were thriving, as well as keeping an eye on ones that hadn\u2019t been explored in a while. \u201cWe\u2019re always consuming a ton of cinema, whether it\u2019s working in it or producing or just going to festivals,\u201d Marvin explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For \u201cSplitsville,\u201d Covino and Marvin decided to make a screwball comedy because they hadn\u2019t seen a film from the genre in a while. They also wanted to make sure it explored sex and relationships in a modern way. \u201cOur instinct is toward great characters and a great story, while we\u2019re always looking to tap into things we\u2019re interested in and that we find compelling,\u201d says Marvin.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It takes persistence, patience, and countless pitches to succeed in the field of your dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":1769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow the \u2018Splitsville\u2019 Filmmakers Went From Commercials to Cannes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino share how patience and practice led them to the career of their dreams.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/splitsville-filmmakers-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta 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