Eleanor Wilson is a writer, director, and producer from Adelaide, Australia. Her award-winning short films have played at festivals throughout the world, with her first, “Possum,” winning best short film at the inaugural Nitehawk Shorts Fest. Her latest short film, “Low Road,” which premiered at MoMA, was written as part of the Write by the Sea residency and is a recipient of the Future of Film is Female grant.

“Save Yourselves!” will premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 25. The film is co-directed by Alex Huston Fischer.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

EW: “Save Yourselves!” is a rom-com about a couple named Jack and Su who decide to go off the grid for a week to reconnect to something more authentic. Unfortunately, their trip is poorly timed—the world happens to be actually ending, and they aren’t getting the notifications.

The rom-com slowly, and then very quickly, becomes a sci-fi movie, and Jack and Su have to figure out who they are when faced with the apocalypse.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

EW: The idea came to me from spending spurts of time upstate writing, when I often didn’t have good cell service or WiFi. I’m not as cool and relaxed as I would like to be in this scenario — which should be ideal — and it actually stresses me out quite a bit to be disconnected. Adding a real apocalypse to that trite fear was funny to me!

I told the idea to Alex, my co-writer and director, and being a couple ourselves, it was very fun to start coming up with ideas of what “a couple” would do when faced with this. We mostly live thinking that the world is going to end any minute now, so it wasn’t a huge stretch of the imagination!

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

EW: Ideally, “That was a funny movie, the actors were so charming!” And then, “I really related to that part when…” And then, “Oh god, what are we all doing with our lives and how do we change this?”

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

EW: It was fairly ambitious to make a sci-fi movie on an indie budget. But that was also what was so exciting to us and made for the most fun parts of the process. We chose to take a mostly practical approach to the special effects, both because we like the way that fits with the very grounded style of the rest of the movie, and also because it gave us more freedom to play around with ideas without the constraints of budget/per-second bill on every shot.

There were days where we had to achieve so much tricky puppetry, effects, and camera work — not to mention difficult emotional scenes for the actor — all in one scene. At times, it felt like, “Why did we do it this way?” But it was worth it once we started cutting the footage together and seeing how special it was even before wires had been removed and VFX enhancements had been applied.

We did end up doing a lot more post VFX than we had planned, but mostly because our VFX supervisor, Jeff Desom, was a wizard at subtle manipulation of footage, so he was able to amp it up but still keep it feeling practical.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

EW: Our manager introduced us to our wonderful producers who had heard about the project through IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) Week. They came on board and brought the financing together in partnership with a few different companies and individuals. But this was after a year of talking with other companies and financiers without a green light.

We kept meeting people who liked the film but wanted to change something—casting, genre, shooting in a different country—which we realized that we just weren’t flexible about. So we held out until we met the right team and were so lucky that it worked out!

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

EW: I think I can pinpoint this to three movie watching periods in my life:

1. My parents showing me the best old movies from a very young age—”The Sound Of Music,” “Out Of Africa,” and “Heaven Can Wait” are deeply ingrained in my subconscious.

2. The year I started university in Australia was a very good year for movies—my little impressionable mind was blown. It was the right time in my life to be inspired by something and then “Being John Malkovich,” “Magnolia,” and “The Virgin Suicides” came along.

3. Moving to New York and seeing real American indie cinema for the first time. In Australia, I was only getting access to indies at the level of the aforementioned 1999 masterpieces, then I started acting in little indie films in New York and going to film festivals, or Rooftop Films every weekend and saw films like “Green” by Sophia Takal, “John’s Gone” by the Safdie Brothers, and “Another Earth” by Brit Marling. Those made me realize that filmmaking wasn’t out of reach, and I couldn’t believe how indie indie could be.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

EW: Best advice: Always remember that you set the tone. A filmmaker friend gave me this advice before I shot my first short film. I think about it all the time.

Worst advice: Always pay for your own lunch. Hollywood gives great free lunch, why would you say no to that? I think this advice maybe had a deeper meaning that I missed.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

EW: It’s so hard out there for everyone. Just stick to what feels right to you and do your best to not compromise on that. Be a nice person!

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

EW: It’s a toss up between Penny Marshall’s “A League Of Their Own” and Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless.” They are perfect movies.

W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

EW: It has been a very noticeable change, actually. I’ve had a variety of stepping-stone jobs in the film, TV, and commercial industry over the years and have been in situations where I wish I would have spoken up and defended myself but I didn’t. That regret never goes away. But now it feels like if I was exposed to sexual harassment or objectification in the workplace, I would confidently not hold back on speaking up. And thankfully those kinds of men are just no longer in my orbit, or if they are, they are on their damn best behavior right now.

I’m very grateful to the women who shook this all up and made it possible to not feel powerless in the workplace anymore. I do think that subtle sexism is still very present, even from those who wouldn’t think of themselves as sexist, but we’re certainly heading in the right direction with that as well.