Music video director Emma Higgins is about to make her feature directorial debut in North Bay, Ont. with Sweetness.

The psychological thriller is produced by Toronto- and L.A.-based Fela and When We Were Kids Entertainment, the Ontario-based shingle formed by Daniel Quinn last year, according to a news release. Fela’s co-founder Taj Critchlow and Quinn are producers. Higgins penned the script, which she co-developed with Quinn.

Production will get underway in April and wrap in May, with a tentative release set for 2025, said a spokesperson for the project.

Sweetness will star Alberta’s Kate Hallett (Women Talking) and Norwegian actor Herman Tømmeraas (Ragnarok). The plot centres on a teenage girl who decides to make it her mission to help her music idol after discovering he’s a dysfunctional drug addict.

The cast also includes Aya Furukawa (The Midnight Club), Justin Chatwin (Shameless), Amanda Brugel (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead).

Elevation Pictures is the distributor for Canada while Altitude Film Sales is handling international sales.

Sweetness was one of 32 feature projects which received funding from Telefilm Canada last year. Funding partners also include Ontario Creates.

Fela, founded by Director X and Critchlow, has produced music videos for Drake, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar and Coldplay, in addition to commercials and branded content. Fela also coproduced writer-director Jasmin Mozaffari’s short Motherland. The film was produced by Mozaffari, Caitlin Grabham and Priscilla Galvez, and Critchlow served as an executive producer.

Higgins is a music video and commercial director. She won a Juno Award for Music Video of the Year in 2021 for “No One’s in the Room” from Jessie Reyez.

“Horror is my favorite genre, and when I first started writing this film ten years ago, I knew that this coming-of-age story with its sinister twists and turns could do what those movies did for me growing up, and leave audiences thoroughly entertained and a little bit disturbed,” said Higgins in a statement.

Pictured: (L-R; top) Kate Hallett (photo by Cooper & O’Hara Photography), Herman Tømmeraas (photo by Martin Litwicki), Aya Furukawa (photo by Karolina Turek), Justin Chatwin (photo by John Ryan Hebert); (L-R; bottom) Amanda Brugel (photo by Denise Grant); Steven Ogg (photo courtesy of Trisko Talent Management) and Emma Higgins (image courtesy of Higgins)