There are few experiences more destabilizing for a child than witnessing something they cannot fully understand, and “Josephine” examines that rupture from the child’s perspective. Written and directed by Beth de Araújo, the Sundance Grand Jury and Audience Award winner arrives in theaters on November 20.
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The drama stars newcomer Mason Lily Reeves as Josephine, an eight-year-old girl whose life is upended after she witnesses a crime in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Rather than treating the event primarily through the eyes of the adults around her, de Araújo stays close to Josephine as fear, confusion, and trauma begin reshaping how she experiences the world.
Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan play Josephine’s parents, who struggle to understand their daughter’s increasingly difficult behavior while confronting their own anxieties about what happened and how—or even whether—to explain it to her. Philip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy, and Eleanore Pienta round out the cast.
“Josephine” marks a major showcase for Reeves, whose performance earned acclaim following the film’s Sundance premiere, while giving Tatum and Chan unusually intimate dramatic material as parents attempting to protect their daughter from something they cannot simply make disappear.
Our Sundance review was equally enthusiastic as the praise out of Park City. The Playlist’s Carlos Aguilar called “Josephine” an “audacious, potently unflinching, and profoundly humanistic gut-punch of a film,” praising Mason Lily Reeves’ remarkably intricate performance and Beth de Araújo’s ability to inhabit a child’s fractured perspective without softening the material.
De Araújo also produced the film alongside David Kaplan, Josh Peters, Marina Stabile, Tatum, Chan, Mark H. Rapaport, Josh Beirne-Golden, and Crystine Zhang. Emanuel Nuñez and Jordan Rapaport serve as executive producers.
Running 120 minutes, “Josephine” opens theatrically on November 20, 2026. Watch the trailer below.
