Even Before Her Never Goin’ Back Film Premieres This Week At Sundance, The Dallas-Based Director Is Earning All Kinds Of Accolades.

Today marks the first day of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. And, if history repeats itself, we’re about to hear about a Dallas filmmaker becoming the talk of the festival.

There’s certainly a chance of that happening, anyway. Following in the footsteps of her husband David Lowery, whose Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story were the respective talk of the 2013 and 2017 fests, Garland-raised filmmaker Augustine Frizzell now looks to make a splash in Park City with her new film Never Goin’ Back, which is set to premiere at the 2018 fest.

Sort of like a gritty Superbad for girls, the IMDB synopsis of the film reads as follows: “Jessie and Angela, high school dropouts, are taking a week off to chill at the beach. Too bad their house got robbed, rent’s due, they’re about to get fired, and they’re broke.”

It’s a concept Frizzell has been toying with for some time through well-received crowdfunding campaigns and a short version of the film called Minor Setback, and one that she has continued to pursue, most recently with the support of Lowery and his co-producer team of Toby Halbrooks and James M. Johnston, who are all listed as producers on Never Goin’ Back, alongside another Dallas filmmaker, Liz Cardenas Franke. Shot around Dallas and boasting a long list of local actors, the film features Maia Mitchell and Camila Morrone in the lead roles, with Saturday Night Live player Kyle Mooney also starring.

Even before its premiere, it seems likely that Never Goin’ Back is destined to do well at the fest. In early December, Variety named Frizzell one of its 10 Directors to Watch in 2018 — an impressive feat, considering how that list also includes Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig and Taylor Swift collaborator Joseph Kahn.

To at least one fan of Frizzell’s, this attention comes as no surprise. When we interviewed her husband Lowery in advance of the release of his A Ghost Story film, he raved to us about her filmmaking abilities.

Said Lowery: “Her work continues to inspire me.”

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