Sorry, Baby (2025 film)

Sorry, Baby is a 2025 American independent black comedy-drama film written and directed by Eva Victor, in their directing debut. Starring Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges, and John Carroll Lynch. The film follows a reclusive college literature professor struggling with depression following a sexual assault.

The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and received widespread critical acclaim. It was released by A24 in selected theaters in the United States on June 27, before expanding nationwide on July 25. For their acting, Victor was nominated at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards in Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. For their filmmaking, Victor won Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 31st Critics' Choice Awards.

Agnes is a literature professor at Fairpoint, a liberal arts college in rural New England. She lives alone in a quiet, forested area with a gray cat. Her friend Lydie visits from New York City and shares that she is pregnant via sperm donor. Agnes and Lydie visit their friends Natasha, Logan, and Devin, the five of them former graduate students and classmates from Fairpoint.

Back during their time in the graduate program, Agnes and her friends are part of an advising group led by literature professor Preston Decker. When meeting with Decker, Agnes says she is very fond of and frequently thinks about his first published novel. Decker in kind praises Agnes's thesis and shows her his first edition copy of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

Later, Agnes meets with Decker at his house. She leaves in the middle of the night in a traumatized state, revealing to Lydie that Decker sexually assaulted her. Lydie consoles her, but the next day they are informed that Decker has resigned from his position at the college. When meeting with the college's disciplinary board, they reveal to Agnes that they can neither investigate nor punish him, as Decker is now no longer under the college's employ.

Agnes, emotionally numb and traumatized from her experience, takes in a stray kitten. She contemplates setting Decker's office on fire, which Lydie offers to do herself, but she reconsiders. She admits she does not want to press charges, as Decker co-parents a child with his ex-wife. Agnes later begins a sexual relationship with her neighbor Gavin.

Time passes. When called for jury duty, Agnes admits she is unsure she can be impartial due to her experience being assaulted. She admits she did not want Decker to go to prison as it would not do anything to make him a better person. She is dismissed.

After positive feedback from her stint as a part-time professor at the college, Agnes is offered a full-time position. She is given Decker's former office. Natasha brusquely admits to Agnes that she is envious of her success and reveals that she had sex with Decker while they were students. This triggers a panic attack, and Agnes is later calmed by Pete, a sympathetic sandwich shop owner.

Back in the present, Lydie gives birth to her daughter, Jane. She and her spouse Fran visit Agnes's house. Agnes offers to look after the baby while Lydie and Fran visit a nearby lighthouse. Agnes softly talks to the baby, telling her that she should always feel free to confide in her. She offers condolences to the baby for having been brought into a world where bad things can happen, but expresses hope that she can have a good life.

Sorry, Baby was written and directed by Eva Victor and produced by Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, and Barry Jenkins. Victor is also in the lead cast that includes Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch, Louis Cancelmi, and Kelly McCormack.^[4] Victor shadowed Jane Schoenbrun during the production of I Saw the TV Glow before filming Sorry, Baby.^[5]

Principal photography took place in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in March 2024.^[6] The film was shot on an Alexa Mini LF camera and edited using Media Composer.^[7]

Lia Ouyang Rusli composed the original film score for the film.^[8]

Sorry, Baby premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2025.^[9] In early February, A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film for $8 million after a bidding war with studios including Searchlight Pictures, Neon, and Mubi.^[10][11] The film served as the closing film of the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2025.^[12][13] The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on June 27, 2025, before expanding to a nationwide release on July 25.^[14][15]

It was screened at the 72nd Sydney Film Festival on June 12, 2025,^[16] it opened the 78th Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 14, 2025,^[17] and was showcased at the 53rd Norwegian International Film Festival in the Main Programme section on August 16, 2025.^[18] It also made it to the Official Section of the 70th Valladolid International Film Festival.^[19]

It competed in competition in the 2025 Stockholm International Film Festival on November 7, 2025.^[20]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 168 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Carrying off difficult subject matter with a light touch and wry sense of humor, Sorry, Baby triumphantly announces writer-director and star Eva Victor as a formidable talent."^[21] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[22] In June 2025, IndieWire ranked the film at number 77 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)".^[23]

• Rapold, Nicolas (2025). "Chapter Break". Filmmaker. Vol. 33, no. 4. The Gotham Film & Media Institute.

• Sorry, Baby at IMDb