Cate Blanchett, a two-time Oscar winner, is set to star in Alice Birch’s Sweetsick, marking the filmmaker’s directorial debut at Searchlight Pictures. 

Tip of the Iceberg

Alice Birch’s Sweetsick follows an unpredictable woman (Blanchett) who possesses a strange and piercing gift: the ability to see what people need most in life, usually at great personal cost. Other cast members will be announced shortly for Sweetsick, which will shoot this fall in the U.K. and Greece, with Searchlight Pictures producing it. Birch, who will write and direct her feature directorial debut, is best known for writing Lady Macbeth, the adaptations of Sally Rooney’s novels, Normal People, and Conversations with Friends as a miniseries.

Birch’s Statement

Sweetsick is being produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, and Theo Barrowclough from House Productions (Conclave, The Wonder) in company with Blanchett and her Dirty Films banner. Lee Groombridge will also produce with Film4 as executive producer and co-financer. Deadline reports Birch’s statement, which reads as “I could not be more excited to be making my debut feature as a director with such an extraordinary team of filmmakers and collaborators.