
Molly Belle Wright appears in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
“Omaha” is the first feature film from working cinematographer Cole Webley, who has numerous IMDB credits for shorts and commercial work. He told Kate Erland of “IndieWire:” When you’re in this business, when a script comes along that everybody knows just needs to be made into a film, the writing’s on the wall.”
That script, written by Robert Machoian (2020’s “The Killing of Two Lovers”) is a parable for our time(s). It came to Webley’s attention as he was setting about directing his first feature film, which premiered at Sundance on Opening Night. It’s a touching film. If “Sorry, Baby” was bought for $8 million by A24, (only the third film so far to nail down a deal), this one is worth three times that. (Never waste an Oscar-nominated actor like Lucas Hedges in a tiny part!)
FILM OPENING
A father is shown waking his two children and loading them into the car for a cross-country road trip from Utah to Omaha, Nebraska. (He tells the older child to take what she’d take if the house were on fire.) I had not read extensively about the film. The devastating plot is concealed so long that I had to talk my spouse into sticking with it. I pointed out the superior cinematography (Paul Meyers), where even a random shot on the highway was primo, and the acting, which is top-notch.
His response was, “Yeah, but what’s going on?” So, I found out, told him by revealing the key plot point early, and he got to see one of my two favorite Sundance 2025 feature films this year, The other was “Train Dreams,” which sold in the high teens to Netflix.
The key plot point is hidden from the audience’s view until you’ve devoted almost an hour to the 83-minute movie. In today’s period of short attention spans and ADD/ADHD, maybe the audience could have been let in on the sub-text a bit sooner? (I taught for MANY years, so bear with me on that slight criticism.)
HIDDEN PLOT POINT
(*Do not read this if you want to be “surprised” by the plot’s key point.)
In July of 2008 Nebraska became one of several states that passed a Safe Haven law that allowed unharmed infants to be dropped off at a hospital without penalty where they would immediately become a ward of the state. The Nebraska law failed to specify an age for the children being abandoned. Before the Nebraska legislature fixed the loophole, thirty-five children had been abandoned—none of them infants and five of them from out-of-state.
Screenwriter Machoian heard about the last woman from Davis, California who managed to be the last parent to make the trip to Omaha out of desperation to take advantage of the loophole. The law was clarified to mean infants younger than 30 days. Miachoian described the genesis of the script during the Q&A: “For me, I had just finished grad school, we had 6 kids, and we were super poor. I was aware that if something happened to my wife (as it does to the wife in “Omaha”) I would be overwhelmed.”
Director Webley told Filmmaker magazine: “The idea that you can just poo-pooh something because you’ve never been in that situation, or you can’t see or feel it, it really scares me as a society—that insular feeling that we don’t have to think about that because we’re not going through it.”

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
Amplifying the timeliness of the film, Webley added: “I would guarantee you that this guy probably didn’t vote blue. He seems like a blue collar dude. He probably was raised in a conservative environment. Who knows how he voted? But I can tell you that, for me, as someone who definitely isn’t aligned with what’s happening in the country right now, I see this man as a human being who’s struggling and has trauma. Compassion should rule the day, not punishment.”
Webley continued, “And if I wanted this movie to do anything without being didactic, it would be that it places humanity upon the people on the edges and the fringes of our society. We’re so ready to forget them because we don’t know them or see them every day. We’re so ready to judge them, ready to say, ‘deport them.’ But these are people who are trying. And if they’re not trying, they probably need help and a system that is going to provide options rather than punishment.”
ACTING

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
The lead (Dad), John Magaro does a great job of showing us a caring father pushed to the brink. But the accolades went to the two young actors playing Ella and Charlie, his 9 and 6-year-old children. Molly Belle Wright, in particular, who played Ella was a real find. Wyatt Solis played the younger brother, Charlie. Said Director Webley, “Molly’s like a professional actress. She was 9 at the time and she’s incredible. I can’t wait to see her blossom. It was like working with two adults when she was in the room.”
During the Q&A, he expanded on working with such young actors: “But when we got into the car (all real, no green screen), it just became really clear that Wyatt (age 6) was not going to do the same thing twice.” Webley described Wyatt as “the tip of the spear” and Magaro—who only met the kids three days before filming was to start—said during the Q&A, “Wyatt’s like Brando. He does what he wants.” (Laughter) Child labor laws dictated that Wyatt could only be filmed three hours a day and Molly for four. Only Rex, the golden retriever, had to be recast, but he is “alive and well in Utah,” where most of the film was shot, (with some footage in Wyoming and Nebraska.)
DIRECTOR

Cole Webley, director of Omaha, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
Webley told Filmmaker magazine, “I see my job directing as mostly guide rails. I don’t like to talk a lot about back story. I want my actors to take their role and their job is to go and find that person. And John came prepared. And I was making sure I had given John every opportunity within the scene to nail who this man was.”
The children came off as totally natural. Their dancing and clowning around, which was captured over the 27-day shoot, was perfect for setting the tone of the film family. It was clear from talk about camera lenses and the beautifully framed shots (as they leave town and as they arrive in Omaha) that Webley is an accomplished cinematographer with a real eye for what he is shooting. He echoed another Director I spoke with in Nashville recently, Jason Reitman of “Saturday Night,” who said that 90% of a film’s success is in the casting of a (good) script.
MUSIC, EDITING
The Christopher Bear music was good. The scene in the car where the three rock out to “Mony Mony” by Tommy James and the Shondells was great. (Check out Wyatt in the back seat going ballistic!) Jai Shukla did a great job editing the beautifully-shot footage.
CONCLUSION
I watched A LOT of films over the course of Sundance 2025. At least 25% of them focused on death and dying. This one was about life and living. It was about how hard it can be when society’s safety nets are removed and disinformation and lack of compassion rule the day. This is a gut-wrenching film; a “happy ending” is not in the cards. But it is well worth watching and trying to feel for the people involved on a human level.
As a former teacher from a long line of educators, I felt for the children in this story. First, the kids lose their Mom. Then, they lose their home. Then they lose their dog. Ultimately, they lose their Dad? It is hard to get behind that decision, but the film helps to dramatize the plight of many struggling working class families. Those in power may put down anyone with compassion as a tree-hugging liberal, but the truth is that humanity requires us to empathize with those going through rough times, not to penalize and ostracize them.
What are your thoughts?