The horror-thriller film Please Don’t Feed The Children, the feature film directorial debut of Destry Allyn Spielberg, daughter of Steven Spielberg, will world premiere at the Sitges International Film Festival (the 57th Annual Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantastic de Catalunya), on Friday, October 11, 2024.
The film stars Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey, The Gentlemen), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul, Megalopolis) and an impressive ensemble cast that includes Zoe Colletti (Only Murders In The Building, Boo Bitch and Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark), Dean Scott Vazquez (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the soon to be released You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah with Adam Sandler and Searchlight’s Theater Camp, Vernon Davis (Chariot, A Day To Die), Emma Meisel (Doogie Kameāloha,M.D., American Horror Story: 1984 ), Andrew Liner (Vampire Academy, Bang Bang, Gray Matter), Reagan Aliyah (Marvel’s Ironheart and Netflix’s XO KITTY), and Joshuah Melnick (Saint X, Tesla).
In the film, a gang of orphans travels to the south in quest of a new life after a viral outbreak decimates the adult population of the nation, only to find themselves at the mercy of a psychotic woman who is hiding a perilous secret.
“I am beyond thrilled to be premiering Please Don’t Feed The Children at the 57th annual Sitges International Film Festival. It’s an incredible honor to showcase our film alongside such visionary works. This movie was everything I needed to officially step into directing feature length films. It came with all the exciting challenges that made me a stronger filmmaker and collaborator. We shot this in 18 days and I am so proud of the entire cast and crew for coming together and proving that anything is possible. I couldn’t be more excited to share this experience with the world,” said Destry Allyn Spielberg.
Destry Allyn Spielberg is an award-winning director, having won Best Thriller at City of Angels Women’s Film Festival in 2022 for her short film, Let Me Go The Right Way. She co-wrote the screenplay with Owen King (Sleeping Beauties) and it starred Brian a’arcy James and Hopper Penn. It premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. She has also appeared in multiple award-nominated films, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. She is repped by WME, Sugar 23 and Gang Tyre.
Please Don’t Feed The Children is produced by Jason Dubin (Who Invited Charlie?, Babysitters) and his Perry Street Films, Josh Kesselman (The Great, Devil’s Peak), Michael Hagerty (Old Henry), Bill Kenwright, and Daniel Ryniker. The movie was penned by Paul Bertino.
Please Don’t Feed The Children has been acquired by Vertice 360 for Spain, and will be distributed in theaters throughout the country in 2025.