guts Short Film (2024): Sundance Premiere, Cast & Meaning

guts Short Film is Margaux Susi’s 2024 Sundance short about a woman in recovery who asks a stranger to dinner. Cast, plot, themes, awards, trailer and where to watch.

guts Short Film (2024): The Sundance Short About a Dinner Date, Recovery and Unexpected Kindness

A woman in recovery approaches a stranger and asks her out to dinner. That is the premise of guts Short Film, a roughly 10-minute comedy-drama that premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and later won a Jury Award at Palm Springs ShortFest. It is small in scale and warm in tone, and it handles a hard subject without turning it into spectacle.

Not the film you meant? Several shorts share the name Guts:

• GUTS (2021): a body-horror short by Chris McInroy about a worker with an awkward disability striving to succeed in his office job.
• Guts (2025): a comedy by Maxwell Noyes about a young graffiti artist who gets separated from his friend when their spot is busted.
• GUTS (Hastiin Bí’ach’íí’): a Navajo-led comedy-adventure project from Moab, Utah, that was crowdfunded.

This guide covers Margaux Susi’s 2024 film, which is the one most people searching the title mean.

Quick Facts

Detail	Info
Title	guts (lowercase in official listings)
Director	Margaux Susi
Writer	Jan Rosenberg
Cast	Angela Giarratana (Amelia), Kate Burton (Gabby)
Producers	Grayson Propst; Margaux Susi and Angela Giarratana
Cinematography	Meena Singh
Editor	Michael Scotti Jr.
Music	Zachary Marsh
Production company	Lady M Productions
Genre	Comedy-drama short
Runtime	About 10–11 minutes (IMDb lists 10m and TMDB lists 11m)
Country / Language	United States / English
Premiere	World premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
IMDb rating	7.1/10 from 166 votes

Watch the Trailer

An official trailer is available. Margaux Susi posted a “guts Short Film” official trailer on Vimeo, labeled as an official Sundance 2024 short film selection.

Watch the Shorts

guts Short Film was part of Sundance’s fiction shorts, and the festival made select titles available online for the public from January 25–28, 2024. That window has passed. See “Where to Watch” for current options, and check Susi’s other recent short, Uncle Johnny, if you want more of her work.

Synopsis

Spoiler-free.

The official logline is simple: desperate for help, a woman in recovery asks an unlikely stranger on a dinner date. Amelia is the woman in recovery, and Gabby is the stranger she approaches. Most of the film is a conversation between the two over a meal. Reviewers describe the exchange as tender, awkward and funny, with the central question being whether a stranger will say yes and what that kindness costs and gives.

Creative Team

• Margaux Susi (director, producer): An actor and director who brought her theatre and comedy background to the film.
• Jan Rosenberg (writer): The screenwriter, whose own experiences helped shape the story.
• Angela Giarratana (Amelia, producer): She stars, and she is also a producer on the film.
• Kate Burton (Gabby): An established actor whose grounded, warm performance drew praise from viewers.
• Grayson Propst (producer).
• Meena Singh (cinematography), Michael Scotti Jr. (editor), Zachary Marsh (music).

Festival Journey & Recognition

• World premiere: Sundance Film Festival, January 2024. It was one of 53 shorts announced for the festival, and the festival’s own listing names it among the fiction short films.
• Palm Springs ShortFest: Susi’s biography states the film won a Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Shortsfest.
• Database listing: TMDB lists one nomination.

A Sundance premiere and a Palm Springs jury prize are strong credentials for a 10-minute short.

The Origin Story

The film grew from lived experience. According to a Utah Statesman preview, it is a product of the team’s combined experiences with disordered eating, particularly Susi, Giarratana and writer Jan Rosenberg. Giarratana said the film picks up where a lot of stories about disordered eating end. That makes it a story about recovery and ordinary life, not about illness at its worst.

Many scenes were inspired by moments of unexpected kindness the team experienced in real life. The production was small, and Susi called the film an underdog, saying the team had “everything that would make for a terrible film.” Her point was that the right story and the right people are enough.

Visual Style

guts Short Film is built around two people and one conversation, so its look is intimate and performance-led. I found no detailed interview about shot design, so the following is interpretation: a dinner-table setting keeps the camera close to faces, and the comedy and discomfort come from pauses and glances more than from movement. One viewer praised how every glance, hesitation and pause carries weight in Giarratana’s performance. Meena Singh’s cinematography and Zachary Marsh’s music support that quiet approach. The film also uses a well-known song performed by Giarratana herself.

Key Themes

• Recovery as the part after the crisis. The film focuses on what happens once treatment is behind you and daily life is still hard.
• Asking for help. The premise turns on a vulnerable request made to a stranger.
• Kindness from strangers. Many scenes were drawn from real moments of unexpected generosity.
• Shame and connection. The writer hopes the film helps break down shame-related barriers around the topic.
• Food as ordinary, not forbidden. A viewer reads the film as saying it is fine to ask questions, share your opinion and eat whatever you like for dinner.

If this subject is personal for you or someone you know, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders runs a helpline, and a doctor or therapist can help.

Critical Reception

guts Short Film; Coverage is mostly festival previews and audience reviews. IMDb viewers rate it 7.1/10, and reviews single out the two lead performances as the film’s greatest strength. One reviewer called the film truly incredible, thanks to two remarkably talented actors, and another said it reminds viewers of neighbourly kindness when you are in need. I found no major trade-press review, so do not attribute quotes to a critic outlet without linking one.

Where to Watch

• Trailer and promo: The official trailer is on Vimeo.
• Listings: MUBI, IMDb, TMDB and Moviefone list the film, though I couldn’t confirm any of them stream it.
• Festival and director channels: Susi’s website and social accounts are the best places for news on screenings or a public release.

Director’s Journey

guts Short Film; Margaux Susi describes herself as a Cuban-American director and actor from Miami who earned a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch. Her earlier short The Sperm Bank had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, and her later short Uncle Johnny won the audience award at the 2025 Austin Film Festival.

She also works as a voice director: her site says she vocal directed the Academy Award-winning Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters and has directed English dubbing for international series. She is associate artistic director of IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles, was a finalist for the 2024 Shondaland + SeriesFest Women’s Directing Mentorship, and a 2025 Alliance of Women Directors Latina Director Fellow. Her biography lists her as part of the 2026 Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Director’s Program.

FAQ

1. Who directed guts? Margaux Susi.
2. Who is in it? Angela Giarratana and Kate Burton.
3. Where did it premiere? At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
4. How long is it? About 10–11 minutes.
5. What is it about? A woman in recovery who asks a stranger to dinner.