A Waitress's Last $60 and a Cannes Pitch: How Tyler-Marie Evans Got 'Pretty Babies' to Edinburgh

Tyler-Marie Evans spent her last $60 on a ticket to the Cannes Film Festival to pitch a script she had been writing for more than five years. That script, Pretty Babies, now has its world premiere in competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs 13–19 August 2026 in Edinburgh. The film screens on a Friday as part of the festival's competitive lineup. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Evans grew up in a cult-like church in Texas. Before Pretty Babies, she was waiting tables in Los Angeles, directing short projects and writing the screenplay that would become her debut feature. The story follows two girls drawn by the glamour of old Hollywood into a road trip that pulls them toward the dark underbelly of the sex industry. The film runs 92 minutes and carries an 18+ rating from the festival. (Edinburgh International Film Festival)

The cast is stacked with familiar names from young-adult television. Emily Alyn Lind plays Marie, and Sadie Stanley plays Luna — the two girls at the centre of the story. Ashley Benson appears as Sapphire and also serves as a producer. Madelaine Petsch plays Gemma, and Elias Kacavas rounds out the ensemble. Variety first reported the core cast in July 2025; Deadline confirmed Kacavas's addition that September. (Variety; Deadline)

Behind the camera, the producing team carries serious indie pedigree. Christine Vachon of Killer Films — the powerhouse behind three decades of American independent cinema, from Happiness to Past Lives — is a producer. Wagner Entertainment also produces. Vachon and Jordan Wagner are already backing Evans's next feature, an erotic psychological thriller titled Girls in London, 1999. (The Hollywood Reporter; Instagram / Wagner Entertainment)

Evans has cited Agnès Varda, Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides as the cinematic influences she carried into Pretty Babies. She met Madelaine Petsch while shooting a separate project titled I Wish I Never Had Sex With Him, and that connection helped pull the cast together. (The Hollywood Reporter)

For a first-time filmmaker with no industry connections and a background far from any backlot, landing a Killer Films production and a competition slot at a festival the scale of Edinburgh is the kind of break that most screenwriters wait a career for — or never get. The film now enters the marketplace with a high-profile cast, an 18+ rating that signals it pulls no punches, and a producer whose name opens doors with distributors and festival programmers alike.