Feature Film · 2015

What Is Sunny in the Dark, the Feature Film
Produced by Top Pup Media?

Sunny in the Dark is an award-winning 2015 drama produced by Russ Pond of Top Pup Media, LLC, the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas video production company founded in 1995, with Meredith Burke and Shanda Lee Munson. Written by Mike Maden and directed by Courtney Ware, it stars Jay Huguley, Hannah Ward, and Lee Meriwether, and won the Grand Jury Award at the Laughlin International Film Festival.

Watch the Trailer

Our Greatest Desire
Is to Be Known

  • Produced byAware Films, in association with Top Pup Media, LLC and Play Nice Productions
  • DirectorCourtney Ware
  • WriterMike Maden
  • StarringJay Huguley, Hannah Ward, Lee Meriwether
  • GenreDrama · 1 hr 31 min
  • Released2015 festival run · streaming from April 2016
  • HonorsGrand Jury Award, Laughlin International Film Festival, plus eight more festival awards

Synopsis

A Sanctuary
With Someone Upstairs

Jonah Bock (Jay Huguley) is a therapist at a marriage and family counseling clinic. When he finally moves into a loft he has been wait-listed for for more than two years, he senses he may have found the ultimate sanctuary, a place to shield himself from the pain of the world.

What Jonah doesn’t realize is that Sunny (Hannah Ward), a homeless young woman, lives in the dark crawl space above his home. She sleeps there at night. When the highly regimented Jonah leaves for the office each day, she drops down and lives in his space, careful to leave no trace of her existence.

Lee Meriwether co-stars as Dorothy. The film features an original score by Shawn Magill, released as a soundtrack album.

Sunny in the Dark poster: a man looks up toward a woman hidden in the crawl space above him, with the tagline Our greatest desire is to be known

Cast & Filmmakers

The People Behind
Sunny in the Dark

Cast

  • Jay HuguleyJonah Bock
  • Hannah WardSunny
  • Lee MeriwetherDorothy

Filmmakers

  • Courtney WareDirector
  • Mike MadenWriter
  • Russ PondProducer
  • Meredith Burke, Shanda Lee MunsonProducers
  • Heather HendershotExecutive Producer
  • Jake WilganowskiDirector of Photography
  • Jonathan RudakProduction Designer
  • Shawn MagillMusic

Full cast and crew on IMDb.

Awards & Festivals

Nine Festival Awards
on the Circuit

Winner

Laughlin International Film Festival

Grand Jury Award, and Best Actress for Hannah Ward. Lee Meriwether received the festival’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.

Winner

Northeast Film Festival

Best Director for Courtney Ware, Best Actor for Jay Huguley, and Best Actress for Hannah Ward.

Winner

Arizona International Film Festival

Best First Feature.

Winner

Rockport Film Festival

Best Fiction Feature.

Winner

Hill Country Film Festival

Best Actress for Hannah Ward.

Official Selection

Across the Country

Newport Beach, Julien Dubuque, Louisville’s International Festival of Film, Heartland, FilmDayton, and Twin Cities.

“A fabulously thought out, complex and intriguing character.”
Matt Mungle, The Mungle Show

Watch Sunny in the Dark

Where to Watch

Go Deeper

The Sunny in the Dark Site

The film’s official website has production stills, news from the festival run, and the full list of past screenings.

← All feature films by Top Pup Media

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