Parity Pipeline

Parity Pipeline

Magic Hour

Harriet, a once-promising filmmaker, is stuck in the suburbs of New Jersey. Alienated from her cheating husband and spurned by her teenage daughter, she secretly enrolls in film school to revive her long-lost dream.

  • ABOUT
  • BIO
  • SCREENINGS
  • AWARDS
  • PRESS
  • CREDITS
  • GALLERY

Genre

Synopsis

A once-promising filmmaker languishes in the suburbs of New Jersey. Dumped by her philandering husband and reviled by her teenage daughter, Harriet secretly goes to film school. She loves every minute of it but when she gets her first professional directing job, she is horrified to find that the professional film environment is a cutthroat place run by bullies and their terrified minions. When she gets fired off her own film, replaced by her nemesis, and found out by her daughter, Harriet needs to decide if her lifelong goal is pure folly or a dream worth saving.



Bio

Jacqueline Christy is a writer, director, and founder of Access Theater. She received her MFA from the NYU Graduate Film Program at Tisch and received grants from the NYC Women's Fund, the NY State Council on the Arts, the Hollywood Foreign Press grant, and the Sloan Foundation. Through Access Theater’s 33-year history, she has produced, co-produced and presented hundreds of plays, including The Killing Act starring Peter Dinklage, written and directed by Tom McCarthy; Aasif Mandvi’s Sakina’s Restaurant; Stephen Belber’s Tape; and Bedlam’s acclaimed production of Saint Joan. She was Assistant Director of the feature films Radium Girls and Equity and the short film Jungle, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She was Assistant Director of the short film Fry Day, which premiered at SXSW.  Her directorial film work includes the feature film Magic Hour, the short films Rehearsal (Austin Film Festival), Other People (St Louis International Film Festival), and The Dependents (LA Shorts International Film Festival). Christy was recently selected by SHOOT magazine for their New Directors Showcase. Magic Hour premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, where it was selected for an Encore screening. It won the Audience Awards for Best Feature Film at the Annapolis Film Festival, the Berkshire International Film Festival, and the Second Runner Up Audience Award at the Miami Film Festival, as well as a Berkshire Film Festival Jury Award for Outstanding Performance for Miriam Shor. Magic Hour stars Miriam Shor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Austin Pendleton, and is Christy’s feature debut.



Screening History

World Premiere - Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2025

Miami Film Festival 2025

Hamptons International Film Festival 2025

Berkshire International Film Festival 2025

Annapolis Film Festival 2025

Awards History

Miami Film Festival 2025 - Second Runner Up Audience Feature Film Award

Berkshire International Film Festival 2025 - Audience Award for Best Feature Film, Outstanding Performance Jury Award

Annapolis Film Festival 2025 - Audience Award for Best Feature Film

Woods Hole Film Festival 2025 - Runner-Up Audience Award for Best Narrative Film

Woods Hole Film Festival 2025 - Director's Choice Award for Emerging Filmmaker

Press

"Jacqueline Christy is hard at work promoting her debut feature film, “Magic Hour.” Twelve hours or so after returning to New York from Cannes, she’s on the phone from an Amtrak lounge, waiting to board the train that will take her upstate. Her film screens Friday afternoon at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, the hub of the Berkshire International Film Festival. At Cannes, she says, she talked to anyone who would listen about her plucky independent film, which tells the story of a beleaguered housewife who revives her decades-delayed dream of becoming a film director. One person in a position to make a difference told her something that stuck with her, she says: Sometimes, for any number of reasons, a little movie becomes the one that everyone seems to be talking about. “I want to be the movie that everyone’s talking about,” Christy says… The story behind “Magic Hour” is loosely based on Christy’s own experience of going back to film school, years after she founded a theater company in Tribeca. While heavily fictionalized, she says, the lead character “is a distillation of all my most neurotic tendencies.” Audiences have been connecting with Harriet’s regrets and her unexpected response to her midlife crisis, Christy says: “Things are in flux in our world.” Like a lot of other businesses, film distribution is going through some turmoil. Still, she’s keeping her hopes high."
The Boston Globe
"“Magic Hour is a phenomenal feature debut from Jacqueline Christy that’s already a highlight of 2025 and is likely to stay as one of the best indie films of the year.”"
The Hollywood Handle
"“The 2025 film Magic Hour is pure magic ... Magic Hour is a nigh on perfect 5 stars out of 5 ... It now ranks as one of my 2025 favorites.”"
Mike’s Film Talk
"Magic Hour is more than just a fish-out-of-water comedy where a late bloomer discovers herself: It sneaks in important commentary about male and female approaches to filmmaking and the power of kindness (David O. Russell could take a cue)."
The Contending
"“What a truly great film!...There’s an intimacy to this one, and something truly sincere about the entire film. With great performances, excellent humor, and wonderful direction, it’s easy to understand why everything works so well. I’m not sure when this will be available to a wider audience, but I highly recommend it to everyone. It’s the kind of little indie film we need right now.”"
Film Snob

Credits

Actor - Miriam Shor

Actor - Sendhil Ramamurthy

Actor - Austin Pendleton

Actor - Josh Stamberg

Composer - Emmy Winning Carla Patullo