Discover Eva Victor's must-see debut Sorry, Baby on MUBI

Every year, a handful of vital new filmmaking voices emerge on the scene, and one of the most exciting to do so in 2025 has been Eva Victor with their electric debut feature Sorry, Baby, which they wrote, directed and starred in. Set in and around a leafy New England university town, it’s a sharp, darkly funny and deeply tender drama centred on Agnes (played by Victor), an academic in their late-20s who’s grappling with the aftermath of a sexual assault by their English lit professor. Rather than focus on the horrible thing that happened, however, Victor’s film explores how that horrible thing stays with you in your body. Agnes is emotionally stuck, unable to move forward, and feels isolated as they struggle to process the mess of anger and shame they're feeling, and the trauma they're trying to bottle up.

If that all sounds a bit bleak, fear not. What makes Sorry, Baby such a tonic is its delicate approach to this troubling subject matter. Victor displays a unique lightness as they navigate Agnes’s emotionally complex journey. It’s a bruising film, but one filled with humour and hope. “I really wanted to write a film about trying to heal,” Victor told me when they visited the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which opened this year with Sorry, Baby. “I felt like there were these years, the years right after something bad happens, that hadn't been documented in film. I was missing some sort of conversation about these years when everyone looks away and moves on with their life, as they should, but you are left stuck trying to make sense of what happened. I feel they are very definitive years; they're really their own thing. So I wanted to make a film about that time, and I wanted to move away from the violence being the centre of the film and move towards these lost years.”

Eva Victor and John Carroll Lynch in Sorry, Baby. Photo: MUBI

Perhaps the reason why Victor’s approach to this tough material feels so fresh is that their journey to filmmaking isn’t the typical one. One of their early gigs was writing for Reductress, the satirical website skewering the kinds of articles aimed at women in glossy magazines. Victor is also a master of online video comedy. They amassed a huge following while making snappy, sarcastic videos on Twitter, many of which went viral, including hilarious takes on the gender pay gap, rom-com BFFs and Straight Pride. Those videos helped Victor hone the deadpan humour they display in Sorry, Baby, but crucially, they also gave Victor the confidence to step into filmmaking. “I think [those videos] prepared me for how humiliating it is to make something when no one is begging you to,” Victor tells me. “When you put things online, you're not responding to some sort of demand. You're like, ‘I have something to say' or 'I want you to think this is funny’. That's humiliating. Sorry, Baby is obviously more heavy and important, but those videos prepared me to fight for myself.”

Sorry, Baby rewrites the trauma plot. Victor has inventively structured Agnes’s 'lost years' out of order, which emphasises the sense of paralysis the protagonist feels. It also ellides the assault itself, and characters only allude to it in euphemistic language, calling it “the bad thing.” Not only was this a way of protecting Agnes from the language of sexual abuse, but it also protects the audience. “I think I made a film about [a sexual assault] in order not to show it," explains Victor. "It feels like other movies, they have to show it, or they want to show it for impact. And often those films are impactful, but I really wanted to try to make a film that was emotionally impactful and didn't send my body into shock while watching it.”

Sorry, Baby isn’t just about the lasting scars of sexual assault. It’s also about the power of a delicious sandwich, the companionship of a small tabby cat and at the very core of the film is a celebration of friendship. The film opens with Agnes’s best pal Lydie (played by the excellent Naomi Ackie) visiting, and throughout, Lydie acts as a ballast at different points in Agnes’s life. “I wanted to show how a really good friend can keep someone alive,” says Victor, “and I wanted to honour that kind of platonic love too. It took a bit of time to figure out how to structurally support the idea that the film wasn't about the violence and was, in fact, about a loving friendship.”

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Sorry, Baby is streaming exclusively on MUBI
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