Channing Tatum cried during the Sundance world premiere of “Josephine” on Friday, Jan. 23, telling the audience he teared up “five, six, seven times” while watching the finished film for the first time. The drama, set in San Francisco, follows an 8-year-old girl whose sense of safety collapses after she witnesses a sexual assault in Golden Gate Park.
Writer-director Beth de Araújo cast newcomer Mason Reeves as the title character, with Gemma Chan playing Josephine’s mother, Claire, and Tatum as her father, Damien. Onstage after the screening at Park City’s Eccles Theatre, Tatum said he felt “so scared” acting opposite a first-time child performer because the story demanded tense confrontations between parent and child. He said he repeatedly reassured Reeves that his anger belonged to the scene, not to her.
Reeves leaned into the moment with an easy confidence that drew laughs from the room. She said Tatum kept checking on her, and she told him she was fine. De Araújo said she discovered Reeves at a San Francisco farmers market, approached her family, and later built the performance through rehearsal and careful communication on set.
Festivalgoers greeted the team with a long standing ovation. The theater filled early, and over 400 people on a waitlist did not get inside, a sign of the early attention surrounding the film in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Reeves said one of her favorite scenes involved sharing a jelly doughnut with Tatum, a small beat of warmth inside a story shaped by fear.
De Araújo has described “Josephine” as rooted in a childhood memory that stayed with her into adulthood and guided years of writing, research, and development. The film arrives as Sundance begins its final Park City edition before the festival moves to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, putting fresh focus on how high-profile performers and first-time talent can meet difficult material with care.
