It premiered at South by Southwest on March 9, 2024 (winning the Audience Award), and was theatrically released in the United States on February 28, 2025.
Premise
A U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran is at odds with her estranged Vietnam Veteran grandfather and her VA counselor. All thanks to the presence of her dead best friend from the Army.
Kyle Hausmann-Stokes directed the film in his feature debut.[5] Written by Hausmann-Stokes, A. J. Bermudez and Cherish Chen, the story was inspired by Hausmann-Stokes' time serving five years in Iraq as a paratrooper and convoy commander. Hausmann-Stokes also wrote and directed the 2022 short film, Merit x Zoe.[5] According to Variety, the film is the first to be financed with green energy tax credits under an innovative model created by Mike Field at his Bess Rentals while Ray Maiello produced the film at Radiant Media Studios.[6] Radiant Media Studios brought Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to the project as an executive producer.[7] Legion M co-financed under their crowdfunding model.[8]
My Dead Friend Zoe premiered at South by Southwest on March 9, 2024, where it won the Audience Award.[13] In June 2024, Briarcliff Entertainment acquired the film. On October 19, it won the Grand Jury prize for Best Feature Narrative at the Woodstock Film Festival.[14] It was theatrically released in the United States on February 28, 2025.[15]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 91 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10.The website's consensus reads: "Carrying off painful subject matter with a light touch, My Dead Friend Zoe invites audiences to a healing process that comes with both chuckles and tears."[16]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]
Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood called the film "a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit."[18] Matt Donato of Collider praised Martin-Green's performance,[19] while Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com also commended Harris, describing him as "one of our best living actors" in the supporting cast.[20]
Variety ranked "My Dead Friend Zoe" as one of the 10 Best Films of 2025.
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