THE MISCONCEIVED

USA | 35mm | 2026 | 88 min.
Director: James N. Kienitz Wilkins
Cast: Jesse Wakeman, Jess Barbagallo, John Magary
A fortysomething failed filmmaker reluctantly takes a carpentry job renovating the second home of his former college friend in this wry satire of the current gig economy. One of the more unique-looking and destabilizing American indies in recent memory, The Misconceived was created with an uncanny-valley combination of motion capture and 3D animation, rendered within a video game engine. Preceded by Justin Dean’s far-out computer animation A Beautiful Day (2024, 6 min.), presented on 16mm. (MK)