Tribeca Film Festival: Kyra Sedgwick on Directing the Quirky Romantic Comedy Space Oddity

Kyra Sedgwick has been acting for most of her adult life, but five years ago, she transitioned into directing with Story of a Girl, which led to her directing episodes of television shows like Grace and Frankie, City on a Hill, Ray Donovan, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

One thing you can say about the annual Tribeca Festival is that it always tries to promote local New York filmmakers, and you can’t get more New York than the NYC-born Sedgwick, who brought her latest feature, Space Oddity, to the 2022 iteration. 

Based on Rebecca Banner’s screenplay which appeared on the 2016 Black List, Space Oddity stars Kyle Allen as Alex McAllister, a young man who is getting closer to his dream of taking a one-way mission to Mars to colonize the distant planet. None of Alex’s family believes this trip is realistic, but while trying to get an insurance policy for his interstellar trip, Alex meets Daisy (Alexandra Shipp), and the two become unlikely friends even though Daisy starts giving Alex a reason not to travel into space. 

Despite its title, Space Oddity isn’t really science fiction, as much as it’s a character dramedy about the relationships between a few disparate characters in this suburban area. Sedgwick’s real-life husband Kevin Bacon portrays Alex’s father, while Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid’s Tale) plays his sister Liz, and Simon Helberg plays Dimitri, who helps Alex’s family around their flower farm.

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