Emily Mortimer Taps Alison Oliver & Yura Borisov To Lead ‘Dennis,' Her Feature Directorial Debut For A24 & Fruit Tree
EXCLUSIVE: Alison Oliver (Saltburn) and Anora Oscar nominee Yura Borisov have signed on to star in Dennis, a romance marking the feature debut of BAFTA-nominated actress Emily Mortimer, for A24 and Fruit Tree.
Written and directed by Mortimer, the film follows a British student (Oliver) and a Russian poet (Borisov) who fall in love in 1990s Moscow.
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The project marks a reunion for A24 and Fruit Tree following their work on two Jesse Eisenberg projects: his forthcoming untitled comedy, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, on which we were first to report, and his feature directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World. Previously, the companies have also collaborated on Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow, as well as The Curse, the Showtime series from Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, starring Fielder and Fruit Tree's Emma Stone.
Stone, Dave McCary and Ali Herting will produce Dennis through Fruit Tree alongside Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola and Lizzie Nastro Adler for King Bee Productions. Exec producers include Joshua Horsfield for Intake, Viktória Petrányi for Proton Cinema, and Jacob Epstein for Lighthouse. A24 will finance the film and handle its worldwide release.
Perhaps best known for a striking supporting turn in Emerald Fennell's Saltburn, Oliver has subsequently reunited with the filmmaker on her Warner Bros adaptation of literary classic Wuthering Heights, which is slated for release on February 13, 2026. Also recently seen in Justin Kurzel's The Order, she'll next be seen starring alongside Mark Ruffalo in HBO's buzzy crime drama Task from Mare of Easttown's Brad Ingelsby. She's represented by Curtis Brown and CAA.
Since garnering an Oscar nomination for his turn as Igor in Sean Baker's Anora, Borisov has been tapped to star opposite Andrew Garfield and Monica Barbaro in Artificial, Luca Guadagnino's new AI-themed film for Amazon MGM Studios. He is represented by UTA, ColorCreative, and Gang Tyre Ramer.
Breaking out as a filmmaker with The Pursuit of Love, a limited series she wrote and directed for the BBC and Amazon, where she starred alongside Lily James, Andrew Scott, and Dominic West, Mortimer also co-wrote, created, starred in, and showran the HBO series Doll and Em opposite Dolly Wells. Most recently, she co-wrote Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach's new film for Netflix, where she stars alongside Adam Sandler and George Clooney.
As an actress, Mortimer has also worked with top filmmakers including Aaron Sorkin (The Newsroom), Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island, Hugo), Woody Allen (Match Point), Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins), and Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl), among others. She is represented by UTA, Tavistock Wood, Lighthouse Management & Media, and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern.
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