{"id":604916,"date":"2026-09-03T21:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/604916\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:24:13","slug":"omi-first-look-bunny-levines-final-onscreen-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/604916\/","title":{"rendered":"Omi First Look: Bunny Levine’s Final Onscreen Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tExorcism comedy Omi, starring the late Bunny Levine<\/a> in her final onscreen role, is set to make its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival in late October. The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal the first look at new images from the film, as well as details on its cast and creative team.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film follows Matt, who, after proposing to his non-Jewish girlfriend, Christina, becomes possessed by the spirit of his dead Yiddish grandmother, Omi (Levine).<\/p>\n

\n\tLevine, a former librarian turned actress who appeared in Gilmore Girls, Thelma, You Don\u2019t Mess With the Zohan, Shameless and more, died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Tarzana, California, on Aug. 20 at age 97, THR previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tHemingway, who starred as Daryl Hannah in Ryan Murphy\u2019s acclaimed series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, stars in the film as Christina. Emily Lerer directs from a script by Adam Lebowitz-Lockard, who also stars as Matt. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOmi started as a way for me to connect with the generations of Jewish women who raised me \u2014 my mom, my grandma, my great-grandma \u2014 and process what it means to inherit a culture that gets passed down whether you\u2019re ready for it or not, in order to bring it into an unknown future,\u201d Lebowitz-Lockard shared in a statement. \u201cI wanted to make something that could fit a dybbuk possession next to a proposal dinner next to an exorcism, and examine how Jewish culture has changed (or stayed the same) between the generations, with heart, humor and bacon vomit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cGetting to build this world with Emily as her feature directorial debut, and with a cast and crew who understood exactly the tone we were chasing, made for an unforgettable first feature experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConnie Shi, Brooks Wheelan, Shane Paul McGhie, Jonathan Fishman, Dali Rooni, Matt Cordova, Janet Borrus and Ken Lerner round out the cast.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film blends the supernatural with a grounded character-comedy. Capturing this reality-plus world required balancing grounded intimacy with larger-than-life, Jim Carrey-esque physical humor,\u201d Lerer said. \u201cI knew I wanted Omi to subvert the traditional blue-grey horror style and instead live in a warm, colorful, nostalgic place that centers the heart veiled by generational family trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProducers include Lebowitz-Lockard, Sara Appelbaum, Lerer, Carrie Morgan Glassman and Chris Riddle.<\/p>\n

\n\tOmi\u2019s screening date, time and venue at the Austin Film Festival have yet to be announced.<\/p>\n

\n\tSee the first look images, below.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDree Hemingway and Adam Lebowitz-Lockard in Omi.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Omi<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLebowitz-Lockard and Bunny Levine <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Omi<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Omi<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Omi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exorcism comedy Omi, starring the late Bunny Levine in her final onscreen role, is set to make its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[268301,458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-604916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bunny-levine","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}