{"id":2087,"date":"2026-02-23T18:37:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=2087"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:37:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:37:56","slug":"honey-bunch-directors-filmmaking-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/honey-bunch-directors-filmmaking-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Directors Behind \u2018Honey Bunch\u2019 Went From Short Films to Shudder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHoney Bunch\u201d is the sophomore feature film from writing-directing team Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. The horror thriller tells the story of Diana (Grace Glowicki), who is taken to a mysterious, experimental trauma center by her husband, Homer (Ben Petrie), after she wakes up from a coma.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the success of their 2020 feature debut \u201cViolation\u201d\u2014which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at Sundance before its release on the horror streamer Shudder\u2014the pair knew they wanted to make something more ambitious for a larger audience. Here, Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli talk through the career milestones that resulted in \u201cHoney Bunch\u201d (out now on Shudder) as well as their advice for burgeoning filmmakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you originally meet?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Dusty Mancinelli:<\/strong> We were making our own short films for many, many years. We met at the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab, now known as the Filmmakers Lab, in 2015. We connected instantly. We went to York University, Toronto, to do our masters in film production. We had this unique opportunity to co-direct. We weren\u2019t consciously looking for a collaborator. But we directed and produced [a film], Madeleine starred in it, and it was such an amazing experience. We finally enjoyed the whole process of making something and not just the feeling of having finished something. So we decided to join forces. We made three short films together. Off the back of our third short film, we got financing for our first feature budget feature.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you set out to make \u201cViolation\u201d?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Madeleine Sims-Fewer:<\/strong> Going from shorts to features is always a huge leap. So we got a small team of people, around 10, that we really trusted. We went to this mountain location in Quebec. We shot there for 34 days with all natural light. We were so inspired by the locale.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DM:<\/strong> Having a longer schedule made it less intimidating. Because we had a longer schedule and we knew we could go back there, we were able to explore and experiment. We re-shot the ending entirely. We knew that the film was really personal to us. It is about a topic that is challenging for most people. We were really vulnerable and explored our own traumas from our past. I don\u2019t think we were really prepared for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did \u201cViolation\u201d lead to \u201cHoney Bunch\u201d?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

DM:<\/strong> Because \u201cViolation\u201d played at TIFF, Sundance, and South by Southwest, and it sold to Shudder quickly, that made some of our partners really interested in what we were doing next. That helped accelerate the access to financing. When we came off \u201cViolation,\u201d we wanted to be more mindful of what it really means to be making a film that a large audience is going to see. We still wanted it to be really personal to us, but we also wanted to better prepare ourselves for that experience and process. \u201cHoney Bunch\u201d is a totally different film. It\u2019s still really emotionally impactful and personal to us, but we\u2019re not exposing ourselves in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MSF:<\/strong> We also wanted to work with a lot of the same creative team. We worked again with [\u201cViolation\u201d] cinematographer Adam Crosby and special effects expert Tenille Shockey, and line producer Becky Yeboah this time produced \u201cHoney Bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How often are you thinking of the audience when writing the film?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

MSF:<\/strong> I always think we are our audience. We are making things that we like and that are born out of the things that we love. We\u2019re just trying to be as judgmental as we can be in the writing process. We ask ourselves: How would I criticize this as an audience member? What do you go to see when you watch something? Why do you want to see it? Why is it satisfying? And, if we take it away, what does that do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DM: <\/strong>We learned the value of sharing your work with a select group of people early on. We shared this script with Ben and Grace really, really early on, and they helped us to develop the characters. We have about 10 filmmaker friends who we got notes on the script from that were absolutely invaluable. I\u2019m also a glutton for punishment. I\u2019ll open up Letterboxd and specifically look for negative reviews. There can be truth in there. I don\u2019t know why I feel like I need to know. But I think it\u2019s important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How important have film festivals been to your success?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

DM:<\/strong> Our collaboration and our romantic partnership was born out of TIFF. We met Andrea Boccadoro, who has composed most of our films, at the Reykjavik International Film Festival Talent Lab. We have friends from New Zealand, who we met at film festivals. You need to get to know people on a human level at festivals. Those are the people that are going to then help you along the way, because you\u2019re going to grow together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MSF:<\/strong> The last thing you want to do is be going around with business cards and selling yourself; no one wants that. Just meet other people. See their process, how they work, and what stage they\u2019re at. Then you\u2019ll have a group of people all over the world who you can call on. When we were making short films, I remember being really obsessed with Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and who got into the really big festivals. But often you\u2019d look at that director and seven years later they still hadn\u2019t made a feature. Going to those festivals doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re going to be more successful than someone who is at a lesser known, more regional festival. There are a lot of wonderful film festivals that are really supportive and really amazing launchpads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DM:<\/strong> I know [festivals are] expensive, but I just think it\u2019s so important to go, because it\u2019s so useful to be able to see your film in front of an audience and get real feedback. I remember we screened our second short film at the Austin Film Festival. It has an ending that divided the audience, which is very similar to \u201cHoney Bunch.\u201d We realized in that moment, watching the audience\u2019s reaction, that<\/em> is what\u2019s interesting to us. We wanted to make things that encourage conversations among the audience. That\u2019s what we try to do now. We want to make things that last, that people think about, that people want to talk about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli discuss how they\u2019ve managed to get their projects produced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":2089,"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-2087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Honey Bunch\u2019 Directors on Filmmaking Advice + The Importance of Attending Film Festivals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli discuss how they\u2019ve managed to get their projects produced, including Shudder\u2019s new release \u201cHoney Bunch.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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