To say that Miranda Bailey (The Diary of a Teenage Girl, God’s Country) likes to play it secure would simply be insane.
By means of her manufacturing agency Chilly Iron Photos, the producer-actress-writer-director has backed the likes of Swiss Military Man, the Daniels’ surreal comedy a few stranded man, performed by Paul Dano, on the verge of suicide who befriends a flatulent corpse, portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe. And at Sundance 2025, the corporate premiered Amanda Kramer’s By Design, starring Melanie Griffith as narrator and Juliette Lewis as a lady who swaps our bodies with a chair.
Bailey is at the moment within the British capital for SXSW London, the place she is a producer on one other genre-bending movie, together with Ioanna Bolomyti, Elizabeth Woodward, Lauren Mann, Yannis Economides, Vladimir Anastasov, Angela Nestorovska, Zvonimir Munivrana, Maja Popovic Milojevic and Irina Malcea-Candea.
The film is The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes, the function movie debut of Greek writer-director Thanasis Neofotistos, which world premiered as a part of the Screen Festival of SXSW London 2026 on Thursday night. The cinematic allegory for exclusion and the need for love and freedom, which may also be seen as a queer coming-of-age story, stars Giorgos Karydis as Petros, a boy compelled by his strict grandmother, and the village mayor, to cover behind a masks as a result of he has blue eyes. Why? Nicely, that eye colour is a supply of concern and superstition for the locals of the distant mountain village the place they stay.
Neofotistos co-wrote the movie along with his husband Grigoris Skarakis, with cinematography by Djordje Arambasic and modifying by Panagiotis Angelopoulos. Gersh is dealing with U.S. gross sales.
How did Bailey find yourself becoming a member of the staff behind a Greek indie movie, her first international fiction function as a producer, you ask? “I was a judge of the Aspen Film Festival shorts, and Thanasis had this short film there that was my favorite of the festival,” she tells THR. “This was years ago, but I remember really fighting for a special mention for this short film by this Greek guy, because I loved it. And he did get the special mention.”
Then her producer good friend Mann, who produced Swiss Military Man with Bailey, talked about she was on board for “this Greek film.” It was The Boy With the Mild-Blue Eyes, and Bailey instantly acknowledged the creator’s title. “Lauren knows that I like really weird stuff, and I said, ‘Oh my god, I love this director,’” she recollects. “I hadn’t even read the script but I knew it would be great.”
Through the weeks of capturing, the 2 American producers break up up their time on set in Greece. “It was all Greek to me,” actually, quips Bailey. “Noone spoke English beyond Thanasis and the young star of the movie, Grigoris.”
However it was all value it given the clear and genuine storytelling voice she noticed in Neofotistos. “It’s about a uniqueness and a point of view,” the producer tells THR. “I like to produce with creatives who have a very specific voice and point of view. You know what a Noah Baumbach film is or can tell, ‘Oh, that’s a James Gunn film,’ that’s a Daniels film.”
Bailey doesn’t have an enormous masterplan for her future in worldwide manufacturing work or a potential second movie with Neofotistos. “I am one of those producers who do not latch on to the directors,” she says. “I like when things happen organically. But obviously, if Thanasis came to me and wanted me to be a part of his next movie, I would love to.”
Bailey will keep watch over the worldwide, with Amanda Kramer’s By Design, starring Juliette Lewis as a lady who swaps our bodies with a chair and Melanie Griffith as narrator, having simply offered to Bulldog Movie Distribution for the U.Ok. and Eire the place it can launch later within the yr. The movie premiered at Sundance 2025,
