Step into a chaotic Martha’s Vineyard summer where an unlikely babysitter navigates love, family drama, and eccentric grandparents in Fantasy Life, Audience Award winner at SXSW 2025.
After losing his job as a paralegal, Sam Stein suffers a panic attack and stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist’s three granddaughters. The girls’ mother, Dianne, is an actor whose once-promising career has stalled; she’s in a difficult marriage to David, a rock bassist. When David goes abroad on tour, Dianne and Sam discover an easy rapport as well as a shared history of mental illness.
Sam joins Dianne’s family to babysit for the summer on Martha’s Vineyard, and he ends up in a house with the woman he pines for, her husband, the three kids, and all four grandparents, including his psychiatrist. Matthew Shear’s directorial debut plunges the audience into the disquieting and often darkly humorous limbo of mental illness. Winner: Narrative Feature Competition Audience Award & Special Jury Award for Performance, 2025 SXSW Film Festival. Presented in Marroney Theatre.
Get TicketsPresented together with Film Fest Tucson. Join us this Fall for the first four of eight films in our yearlong collaboration, bringing you some of the most interesting films and a few special surprises along the way!
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