Institute History
Description
Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic
Sixteen-year-old Billie is blindsided by the news that her mother is planning to transition from female to male and that, during this time, Billie will live at her father’s house. Billie and her mother have always been extremely close, so the two make an agreement they will meet every Tuesday during their year apart. As her mother transitions and becomes less emotionally available, Billie covertly explores her own identity and sexuality with two older schoolmates, testing the limits of her own power, desire, and independence.
Director Sophie Hyde’s methodical, but organic, approach to filmmaking results in a deeply authentic, bittersweet, and textured experience. The fictional 52 Tuesdays was shot on a regimen of chronological Tuesdays, allowing the characters to develop and evolve visually and emotionally, their natural highs and lows unfolding before us. The role of technology becomes central as both parent and child use modern tools to document and alter their lives, impelling themselves—and everyone around them—to arrive at a place of naked honesty.