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WEEK IN WOMEN – IFC acquires A CALL TO SPY, WWII Female Spy Drama – Brandy McDonnell reports

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IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to A Call to Spy, the feature directorial debut of Academy Award-nominated documentary producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, which centers on the courageous unsung female spies who served in World War II. IFC is planning an autumn release.

A Call to Spy won an AWFJ EDA Award for Best Female-/directed Narrative Feature at Whistler Film Festival 2019.

A Call to Spy was produced by, written by and stars Sarah Megan Thomas (Equity), who portrays real-life American spy Virginia Hall, who had a wooden leg. The fact-based period picture takes place at the onset of WWII, as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a new spy agency, the Special Operations Executive, to recruit and train female spies.

The Special Operations Executive’s mission is to pull off sabotage and build a resistance, and Special Operations Executive “spymistress” Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), recruits two unlikely candidates: Hall, an ambitious American, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Atpe), a Muslim pacifist. The pair works together to subvert the Nazi regime in France. (Atkins was widely believed to be the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.) Continue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMEN

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Brandy McDonnell

Brandy McDonnell writes features and reviews movies, music, events and the arts for The Oklahoman, Oklahoma's statewide newspaper, and NewsOK.com, the state's largest news Web site. Raised on a farm near Lindsay, Okla., she started her journalism career in seventh grade, when she was elected reporter for her school's 4-H Club. Taking her duties seriously, she began submitting stories to The Lindsay News, and worked for the local weekly through high school. She attended Oklahoma State University, where she worked for The Daily O'Collegian and earned her journalism degree with honors. She worked for three years at small Oklahoma dailies The Edmond Sun and Shawnee News-Star. In 2002, she joined The Oklahoman as a features reporter, writing about movies, the arts, events, families and nonprofits. She moved to The Oklahoman's entertainment desk in 2007. In 2004, she won a prestigious Journalism Fellowship in Child & Family Policy from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Along with her membership in AWFJ, she also is a founding member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. Brandy writes The Week In Women blog for AWFJ.org.