‘Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma’ Helmer Jane Schoenbrun Says “Everyone Passed” On Buzzy Pic, Citing “Post-Biden Era” Impairing LGBTQ+ Budgets: “F***ing Shameful”

“Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma” looks like it could become an extremely buzzy new genre film from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun, following the fantastic critical reaction to their previous effort, “I Saw the TV Glow.”

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, ahead of the movie, starring Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) and Gillian Anderson (“The Crown”), screening at the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard film 2026), Schoenbrun (a non-binary trans filmmaker) got really blunt, stating that “everyone passed” on the project (until MUBI stepped in) due to an increasingly hostile post-Biden environment for queer and trans filmmakers to tell stories through film (finding it harder to secure budgets as well).

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“Everyone except for MUBI passed on this movie, to be totally blunt,” the filmmaker said of their experience shopping around the film. “Every major studio and distributor passed on the film, and I think it’s because of the limits of what kinds of queer and trans stories are deemed commercial or not commercial…When I look around in our ‘post-woke, post-Biden’ era, I don’t see any other trans artists getting budgets, and that’s a f***ing shame,” Schoenbrun added. “I shouldn’t be the only one who’s making movies at this level of budget.” They believe the doubters will be proven wrong by critics and audiences. “I think this movie will be a hit.”

It’s increasingly disheartening to hear what sounds like discriminatory and exclusionary practices going on when it comes to LGBTQIA+ directors struggling in this second Trump era to have their voices amplified by Hollywood, when this is an art medium where the work should speak for itself. So, when Schoenbrun had trouble getting the next film made after a great critical reception, it felt like a bleak moment for moviemaking.

An official logline for the movie:

After years of slapdash sequels, the Camp Miasma franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director for resurrection. But when she visits the original’s star, a now-reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium.

Others among the cast of the upcoming pic include Jack Haven (“I Saw The TV Glow”), Amanda Fix (“Lowlifes”), Arthur Conti (“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”), Eva Victor (“Sorry Baby”), Zach Cherry (“Severance”), Sarah Sherman (“Saturday Night Live”), Patrick Fischler (“Twin Peaks”), Dylan Baker (“Spider-Man” trilogy), Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Scream”), veteran comedian Kevin McDonald (“The Kids in the Hall”), and Quintessa Swindell (“Black Adam”).

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As mentioned above, MUBI will be distributing “Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma” as the anticipated movie heads to theaters on August 7, 2026, and critics will get their first look at Cannes.