Frieda Luk's Debut 'Sacred Creatures' to World-Premiere at Edinburgh Film Festival
Frieda Luk's first feature film, Sacred Creatures, will world-premiere in competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on 16 August 2026, with a screening at Filmhouse Screen 1 (Italian Cultural Institute Edinburgh).
The film is a Canada-Italy production shot entirely over four weeks in the Italian region of Piemonte (Film Commission Torino Piemonte). It runs 105 minutes and carries a 15+ age rating at the festival (Edinburgh International Film Festival).
Sacred Creatures follows three estranged siblings who reunite in rural Italy after the middle sister, Miriam, played by Olivia Luccardi, is released from psychiatric treatment. Miriam understands the experience that led to her hospitalisation as a spiritual awakening rather than a breakdown (Variety). The cast also includes James Cusati-Moyer, Romina D'Ugo, Antonio De Matteo and Pia Engleberth (Edinburgh International Film Festival).
What sets the film apart tonally is its refusal to stay in one lane. Luk shifts between psychological drama, comedy and magical realism without settling into any single genre. She told Variety that 1970s films, especially European ones, shaped that approach, and cited Marco Ferreri's La Grande Bouffe as a specific influence (Variety). Ferreri's 1973 film is itself notorious for blending dark satire with something far more unsettling.
Luk worked closely with Luccardi to build the character of Miriam. She told the actress that Miriam is like a cat, which Luccardi said helped unlock the role for her. As Miriam grows more secure in herself across the film, Luccardi subtly adjusted the physical quality of her performance, including a greater calmness in her breath (Variety).
One sequence Luk was particularly specific about is a party scene in which Miriam arrives in a voluminous yellow-green dress that separates her from the rest of the room. Luk wanted the dress to be "kind of ridiculous looking, but also kind of chic" and to "take up some space." She compared Miriam's party entrance to Bette Davis's entrance in All About Eve, the 1950 Hollywood classic in which Davis's Margo Channing commands a room the moment she walks in (Variety).
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is one of the world's longest-running film festivals, and its competition slots are closely watched by distributors and sales agents on the festival circuit, the marketplace where films find the buyers who carry them to wider theatrical or streaming release.
For Luk, the premiere marks the jump from short-form work to her first feature as writer-director. For Luccardi, whose credits include Orange Is the New Black and The Deuce, the role of Miriam adds a leading showcase in an international festival selection to a career built largely in American television.
