Tribeca Film Festival will host the world premiere of “Radium Girls,” a press release has announced. Set in the early 20th century, the drama follows two female employees of the U.S. Radium Factory tasked with painting glow-in-the-dark watches. The pic is based on a true story and depicts what happens after licking their paint brushes causes the women to develop cancer. Joey King (“Wish Upon”) and Abby Quinn (“Landline”) topline the feature.
“Radium Girls” marks the feature directorial debuts of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and “Gunslingers” scribe Ginny Mohler. The latter penned the script alongside Brittany Shaw. Pilcher produced with Emily McEvoy, and “Grace and Frankie’s” Lily Tomlin is among the project’s executive producers.
At the film’s April 27 premiere, “Pilcher and Mohler will be joined by co-star Joey King and former EPA executive Betsy Southerland, PhD, in a discussion about the film and how the early organization of the women’s movement empowered the ‘Radium Girls’ to speak out,” a press release details.
“Radium Girls” received a Sloan Foundation production grant at NYU-Tisch. The recipients of this year’s TFI (Tribeca Film Institute) Sloan Filmmaker Fund were announced alongside news of “Radium Girls’” premiere. The grantees are “The New Miracle,” written by Gillian Weeks, and “The Spark,” directed by Eva Weber and written by Ruth Greenberg. The former centers on the creation of the first test-tube baby and the latter is set in India and follows the only woman trainee at the local energy company confronted by her past as an electricity thief.
Each film will receive a $75,000 grant.
“We are delighted to continue our seminal partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute with the premiere of ‘Radium Girls,’ a cautionary tale with contemporary resonance,” said Doron Weber, Vice President & Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She added, “‘Radium Girls’ also received a major Sloan production grant at NYU-Tisch as part of Sloan’s nationwide film program which has resulted in over 20 completed feature films, including several amazing stories about women in science.”