The 26th Hamptons International Film Festival will open with writer/director Sara Colangelo’s The Kindergarten Teacher on Thursday, October 4, at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

The film stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Rosa Salazar, and Gael García Bernal, telling the story of a kindergarten teacher who seeks to cultivate the poetic talents of one of her students with questionable methods.

In 2013, Sara Colangelo attended the HIFF Screenwriters Lab, and she returned to HIFF in 2014 with her debut feature, Little Accidents. The Kindergarten Teacher is her second feature film.

The Kindergarten Teacher
Opening Night Film
East Coast Premiere
Writer/Director: Sara Colangelo

Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a kindergarten teacher in Staten Island who yearns to live a life of art and intellectualism. She takes an evening poetry class but, despite her best efforts, her work is mediocre. When she overhears Jimmy (Parker Sevak), one of her five-year-old students, reciting an original poem in her classroom, she is floored. Convinced he is the equivalent of a young Mozart, she becomes obsessed with the child and embarks on a dangerous journey to nurture his talent. As Lisa continues down this increasingly desperate path, she seems ready to throw away everything to chase an impossible dream.

A tense psychological thriller, The Kindergarten Teacher stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar with Michael Chernus and Gael Garcia Bernal. Sara Colangelo wrote and directed. Talia Kleinhendler, Osnat Handelsman-Keren, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Celine Rattray, and Trudie Styler produced.