What would you be willing to do to achieve your dreams? After lonely aspiring teen actress Hannah (Ella Beatty) is passed over for a role in her senior year high school play, she decides to take a class at “Act One Studios,” an acclaimed dramatic acting company known for bringing success to its young performers. There, she meets Melanie (Ari Graynor), a magnetic acting instructor, who, unlike Hannah’s dysfunctional family, believes in her future success as an artist completely. What starts as a rhythmic and hallucinatory story of finding where you belong quickly takes a thrilling turn. 

Filmmaker Sophia Takal returns to Tribeca with her latest psychological thriller, immersing her audience in a haunting, obsessive story of an actor's process. An incredibly ominous, slow spiral into madness, Act One is filled with squirm-in-your-seat performances as you wait for the other shoe to drop, expertly blurring the lines of passion and truth.—Sequoia Sherriff