JILL TAKES A BREAK
FISCALLY SPONSORED BY bTTL, a 501(c)(3) non-profit | EIN: 88-3840078
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LIZ CARDENAS | Director (she/her)
Liz Cardenas is a writer/director, producer and actor and she’s a 2022 Film Independent Spirit Award Winner for 7 Days, which she produced for Duplass Brothers Productions, and a 2019 Nominee for the A24 film Never Goin’ Back, which she produced with Sailor Bear. She was also nominated for the Producer Award at the 2023 Indie Spirits.
A former journalist, Liz is a Gotham Cannes Producers Network, Rotterdam Lab and Film Independent Fellow and a member of SAG-AFTRA, PGA, Producers United and Latina Squad. She also serves on the Board of Breaking Through The Lens (BTTL), a nonprofit organization that advocates for gender equality in the film industry and she was included in the 2019 LATINXT, a curated list of Latinx creators from an initiative by Zoe Saldana, Robert Rodriguez, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
She’s written and directed two award-winning short films, Imago, and Treading Water, and she’s supported by Richard Linklater’s Austin Film Society, the Tasveer Film Festival & Market, and the American Film Festival’s US in Progress Poland.
Her Ten to the Six Pictures is a film production company with seven award-winning, theatrically-released feature films among its works. Notable credits include; David Lowery's A Ghost Story starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck; Alex Lehmann's Acidman starring Thomas Haden Church and Dianna Agron; Tribeca Award-winning feature Materna; 2019 Outfest Best US Narrative Feature Jules of Light & Dark; and the Oscar-qualifying short film, Burros, executive produced by Eva Longoria. the SXSW 2026 feature, Perfect, starring Julia Fox premiered at SXSW 2026, and she has two feature films in post-production.
Liz splits her time between LA and Dallas, where she grew up with her Hispanic father who immigrated to the US from Mexico City and Irish-American mother from the East Coast.
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Project Type: Live Action Feature
Genre: Drama, Dark Comedy
Status: Development, Financing
Production Country: USA
Production Companies: Ten to the Six Pictures, Driven Equation
Language: English
Director: Liz Cardenas
Writer: Scott Rodgers
Producers: Helena Sardinha, Rafael Sardinha, Rui Xu
Executive Producer: Joyce Quinn
Impact Partners: Recovery Arts Project, Maven Pictures
Supported by: Richard Linklater’s Austin Film Society
Creative Advisor: Noah Hawley
Logline: Jill, 39, a rebellious bartender in Long Beach, CA, buys her dive bar dream just as her addictions and her boyfriend’s hustling spiral toward tragedy, forcing her to choose between chaos and old patterns or a fragile new start.
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DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE: Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) has come aboard to star opposite Thomas Sadoski (The Newsroom) in Jill Takes a Break, a new comedic drama directed by Independent Spirit Award winner Liz Cardenas.
Written by Scott Rodgers, the film follows Jill (Smulders), a bartender in Long Beach who impulsively buys the dive bar she’s worked at for years — only to discover that owning the chaos isn’t the same as surviving it.
Attached to the project since its early development, Sadoski will play Jill’s longtime partner, Vaughn, and also serve in a producorial capacity. The film will be produced by Talon Entertainment, Driven Equation and Ten to the Six Pictures, with Steven Demmler (Oh, Canada, Bookworm) and Sundance fellow Helena Sardinha (Satisfaction) also attached as producers. WME Independent reps worldwide rights.
Director of Jill Takes A Break, Liz Cardenas (far left), together with five-time Oscar Nominated director and mentor, Richard Linklater (center), alongside her fellow grant recipients during the Austin Film Society Artist Intensive.
PROJECT DETAILS
Budget Target: ~ $700,000
Jill Takes A Break is the debut feature of director Liz Cardenas, who has spent the last several years helping launch the careers of the first-time directors she supported. The protagonist is a 40-year old female at a crossroads in her life. She realizes she is a functional alcoholic and must make changes in her life if she wants to survive. An adult-coming of age story, representing working class adults, involving sobriety, recovery, mental health and finding a sense of purpose in one's life, handled with humor and sensitivity.
Talent Attached:
Cobie Smulders (The Avengers, How I Met Your Mother, Jack Reacher, Shrinking)
Thomas Sadoski (The Newsroom, Wild, Devotion, Adult Children)
Karan Soni (Deadpool, Ghostbusters, A Nice Indian Boy, Miracle Workers)
This project is currently in the financing stage, aiming to film Q4 2026 and/or Q1 2027. Cardenas and Xu plan to utilize the same crew used on the BTTL-supported feature, 1972, which they shot in LA this past May.
Follow the team on Instagram: @lizzyinfilms @helenasardinha @thomaseto @rae.xurui
PRODUCERS
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HELENA SARDINHA | Producer (she/her)
Helena Sardinha, who is from the South Coast of Brazil and currently based in LA, is a creative producer with work recognized at prestigious festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, DOC NYC, and Fantastic Fest. In 2018, she co-founded Driven Equation, a boutique production company bridging Los Angeles and São Paulo. Helena's work has garnered awards at the Humanitas Prize, Outfest, the Imagen Awards, and the UNESCO Award for Awareness and Sustainability. A Dear Producer Fellow, she was handpicked by Liz Cardenas as the producer she would mentor for a year, even executive producing a short Helena produced.
Helena, who is also a Sundance Producing Lab and Film Independent fellow, continues to push boundaries with projects like HUELLA, with the support of the Sundance Institute; PIRATES, supported by the SFFILM Rainin Grant, ANGEL IN RETROGRADE, a finalist in the AT&T Untold Stories at Tribeca, and JILL TAKES A BREAK, supported by Richard Linklater’s Austin Film Society. Her work spans both scripted and documentary filmmaking, with her first documentary feature, BARRY AND JOAN, now streaming on Netflix, and first narrative film BEAUTIFUL, FL, currently available on Disney+. SATISFACTION premiered at SXSW and showcases a stellar cast including Cannes winner Zar Amir (HOLY SPIDER), BIFA nominee Fionn Whitehead (DUNKIRK), British model Adwoa Aboah, and Scottish actress Emma Laird (THE BRUTALIST). Helena also leads the development arm of Simbelle Productions, a nonprofit production company dedicated to amplifying women's narratives.
RAFAEL THOMASETO | Producer (he/him)
Rafael Thomaseto is a film producer and co-founder of Driven Equation, a boutique production company based between Los Angeles and São Paulo. He is also Head of Production at Simbelle Productions, a nonprofit supporting women in film.
His recent credits include the SXSW 2025 feature SATISFACTION, the Ukrainian feature THE ETERNITY MAN, and acclaimed shorts such as HUELLA (Sundance) and TITA & THE MACHINES (Tribeca). Rafael also associate produced BLUE HERON, which premiered at Locarno, where it won the Swatch First Feature Award, before continuing to TIFF and San Sebastián, and executive produced I’LL BE GONE IN JUNE, produced by Wim Wenders and premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
RUI XU | Producer (she/her)
Rui Xu is an LA-based independent producer in film and theater, and a certified PMP® (Project Management Professional), championing bold, underrepresented voices and sparking global collaboration through storytelling and artmaking. With a background in music engineering and sound design, Xu founded her own start-up and produced touring off-Broadway shows in China before moving into producing and managing theater and film productions in the U.S.
Xu’s films have premiered at major international festivals. HIEU premiered at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival (2019), winning the Deuxième Prix at Cinéfondation. FINIS TERRAE screened at Critics’ Week at the 77th Venice International Film Festival (2020), where it won the Special Mention FEDIC Award for Best Short Film. Her debut feature, WAY OUT AHEAD OF US, premiered in competition at the Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille (2022) and went on to win Best Narrative Feature at the New Hampshire Film Festival, and is now streaming on Tubi.
Xu’S current films include 1972, the Sundance-supported feature she produced with Liz Cardenas; UNCLE HIEP’S CASINO, a recipient of the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and selected for Film Independent’s Fast Track, Screenwriting Lab, and Producing Lab; and WITHER.
She holds master’s degrees in Creative Producing from CalArts and in Music Technology from NYU. She is an alumna of Film Independent’s Project Involve, where she received the Participant Fellowship grant, a fellow of the Producers Guild of America’s CREATE program, and a fellow of Film Independent’s Producing Lab. She is currently a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts and a producer at the CalArts Center for New Performance.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
by Liz Cardenas, Director Jill Takes A Break
Prior to being a filmmaker, I was an actor and writer, specifically a journalist, always drawn to human-interest stories. When I stopped reporting, I started writing screenplays, while continuing to act, and it led me to producing. Along the way, I directed some short films, which I truly loved. But I continued to produce because it’s been so empowering, and I’ve been able to learn from, as well as nurture, so many talented writer/directors. I believe my unique background is a strength, as I understand independent filmmaking from A to Z and have a keen grasp on both the creative and business aspects of making a quality motion picture and bringing it out into the world. And as an actor, I understand the process, have the utmost respect for the craft and love working with actors.
It’s very important for me, as a storyteller, to amplify women’s voices and portray authentic, diverse and complicated characters of all ages and from all walks of life. I also want to provide some light in the world via cinema, which often happens when you go to dark places. And I hope to spread human empathy at the same time. I believe I can do all that with JILL TAKES A BREAK.
I was especially drawn to the film’s slice-of-life style and relatability, as well as a world you don’t often see depicted in film and TV. When adults are partying, it’s usually very heavy and people are portrayed in a very negative way, being in and out of jail, for instance. Unless the adults are young. Or wealthy. Then, it’s glamorized. Our film lies in the gray, nuanced area, that’s real life for a majority of people.
I’m very passionate about this film, with a beautifully flawed female protagonist who’s at a crossroads. Caught up in a certain lifestyle, she’s trying to decide how she wants to live the rest of her life – dealing with the past and facing the future. The story deeply resonated with me having known many addicts of varying degrees throughout my life, many of whom have struggled with making good choices, often falling into the same vicious cycles.
At its core, JILL TAKES A BREAK is about growing up, taking responsibility for your actions and trying to find a sense of purpose in life. It examines the close relationships in our lives and the impact they have on us – both our families by blood and those we choose as our family --- and how our lifestyle and circle of friends can be part of how we identify, thus making life changes so difficult.
So many people get to a point in their lives, whether it’s at 35 or 45, where they ask themselves, what am I doing with my life, how did I wake up and get here? It’s a universal question. And I’m excited to explore it through this film.