Emma Mackey & Fiona Shaw Will Bring 'Hot Milk' to Theaters in May

On the heels of Jessie Buckley's critically acclaimed turn in The Lost Daughter in 2021, where she played opposite Olivia Colman, it was announced she'd be teaming up with another British actor heading for Dame-hood, Fiona Shaw, in a new film called Hot Milk. The picture was picked up later that spring at the Cannes Market by IFC Films and the international distributor Mubi; however, even before that deal was signed, Buckley was already reported to have exited the film, with Sex Education's Emma Mackey coming aboard to take over her role. Three years on, the film finally debuts at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival and has set a U.S. premiere date.

The film is based on British novelist Deborah Levy’s best-selling novel, also titled Hot Milk, which focuses on Rose and Sofia, a mother and daughter with a deeply dysfunctional relationship. Rose suffers from a mysterious ailment, which has left her wheelchair-bound; the story begins when she convinces Sofia to accompany her to a specialty clinic in Spain, hoping it will provide a cure. Instead, Sofia finds an independence she never knew she needed when she falls in love for the first time with an itinerant artist who happens to be passing through the waterfront town named Ingrid.

Shaw stars as Rose, and Buckley was initially cast as her adult daughter, Sofia, a role now played by Mackey. Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) rounds out the leading trio as Ingrid. Check out the trailer.