Did you watch Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey last weekend and think, “Man, I really want to watch more movies with fake horses?” Go see Horsegirls (2025) by Lauren Meyering this weekend at SIFF!

A heartwarming and heartbreaking tale that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and at the about an Autistic young woman (Margarita, played by Actually Autistic actor Lillian Carrier) who discovers the sport of hobbyhorsing while her mother (Gretchen Mol) is battling cancer. I found it to be like Little Miss Sunshine in tone- life’s tough, but we’ve got each other- and it has gorgeously saturated & colorful visuals. The community in the film is imperfectly quirky, yet learns to be wildly supportive of each other, I wanted to live there. And because it is so grounded, we all kind of can (sort of literally can as it was filmed near Portland, OR), if we reach out and help each other.

Playing only this Friday (July 24) and Saturday (July 26), its such a wonderful reminder of the power of a supportive, diverse community.

https://www.siff.net/cinema/in-theaters/horsegirls

I saw this at the Seattle Film Festival (the local one) last fall (where it won Grand Jury Best Feature Film award, with Gretchen Mol won Best Actress and Lillian Carrier won Outstanding Performance) and I loved it so much, I rented it via streaming at another film festival, so I could show it to my mom.