If we can’t escape the Matrix, how do we decide from within it what matters most?

2025

Feature Film | Sci-fi

In the wake of a cosmic event, a reclusive scientist studying fungi discovers she’s trapped in a simulation powered by the very system she helped create.

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY

Jenna Kanell

EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY

James Ward Byrkit

PRODUCED BY

Thang Ho & Tony Poon

CINEMATOGRAPHY BY

Kristian Zuniga

Synopsis

To Jonah, data is everything. She’s happiest alone, in nature, immersed in the research of fungal networks.

But impatient for progress, her corporate pharmaceutical employer intervenes, deploying a supervisor who gives Jonah one week to prove the merits of her work.

Through their time together, an existential terror overtakes Jonah upon discovering the truth about the very nature of her reality.

And when you tug on one thread, the whole sweater comes apart.

Looking behind the curtain of her own existence uncovers even darker revelations about her life, everyone she loves, and the entirety of all biological life on Earth. 

The betrayal suffocates her as she drowns in a prison of her own creation. In its wake, Jonah's forced to confront the next stage of mankind's evolution.

She’s left with a choice: to end her consciousness forever…or to keep going. To find gratitude in the profound human experience of joy, hope, love, and loss. 

To make peace with meaninglessness, and create meaning anyway.

Film Comps

Coherence

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Directed by James Ward Byrkit

X

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Dark Romance | Sci-Fi | Psychological Drama

Directed by Michel Gondry

Ex Machina

Sci-Fi | Psychological Thriller | Drama

Directed by Alex Garland

De Novo explores fungal biotech, consciousness, and the cost of progress—grounded in real science and told from a woman’s perspective, without defining her by romance or trauma. Unlike most AI stories, it sees AI as a mirror, not a monster.

Blending animation, stop motion, and live-action, it’s both a love letter to Earth and a cautionary tale. At its core, De Novo asks: If life has no inherent meaning, how do we make it matter?

Director’s Statement

Film Tone

With the emotional depth of Her and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the innovative visuals of Everything Everywhere All At Once, De Novo blends personal storytelling with bold imagery.

We want the audience to walk away with their brains melted and their hearts filled.

Characters

Jonah

An androgynous mycologist who passionately derives fulfillment from her scientific research, even while at philosophical odds with the major pharmaceutical company she works for. She prefers the isolation of the wilderness to the company of others, and believes everything can be boiled down to data.

Aviyaan

cast
To Be Announced

Jonah's romantic partner, and a fellow scientist, albeit one who works in a lab. Having watched his successful mother die alone, to him his job is just that. Hopelessly in love, he has the heart of a poet, and wants nothing more than for Jonah to come home so they can build a life together.

Chiasa

cast
Alexis Louder

A bioethicist, who on behalf of the corporation interrupts to evaluate over the course of a week whether to renew Jonah's research grant. She takes her work quite seriously, at the intersection of philosophy and science. But eventually, her true intentions erupt to the surface.

Paul

Jonah's mentor and father figure, he's devoted his life to building a piece of fungal biotechnology: a machine powered by mycelium. He helped usher Jonah into her field and continues to provide guidance. But he's dying.

Current Status

Development ⎯ Pre-Pro ⎯ Production

“It's a love letter to the breathtaking planet at our fingertips. It's a reminder that we're a part of said world, rather than separate from it. We forget how tiny we are in the massive scheme of the universe, and how little time we have. We can choose to let such a fact crush us, or lean into a sense of awe and wonder, and focus on the things that truly matter. Before action must come awareness: when we look outwards, we look inwards.”

— Jenna Kanell

Team Behind the Project

Writer | Director | Actor

Terrifier, Renfield, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, WandaVision, TEDx Speaker

Executive Producer

Oscar-winning Rango, Coherence, Shatter Belt

Producer

DGA, Emmy-Winning Producer

Producer

Telly-Winning Producer, Producers Guild

Sudance, Tribeca, Slamdance

Cinematographer

IMDb | Instagram

Cinematography

In the vein of early Chloe Zhao films such as The Rider, Nomadland, and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, we're filming the exteriors of De Novo intimately; almost entirely handheld, leaning on natural lighting. And for stylistic moments and interiors, we’re motivating the lighting with the environment. Immersed in the natural, isolated, world of the character in, and a part of, her element.

Production Design

In the vein of Black Mirror, the few elements of production design which ground us in a not-too-far-off time period are relatively simplistic. One element I'm particularly excited about in this department: similar to a tactic used in films such as The Shining, we'll create purposeful continuity errors in the set decoration, which begin subtly and increase in severity as our sense of reality crumbles.

Isolated in the woods, the Living Lab is powered entirely by mycelium: mycofiltration for water, mycoremediation for plumbling, mycofabrication for furniture and construction. Not off the grid, but on its own grid.