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Sundance film ‘Omaha’ directed by Quincy native

By Jessica Drake, The Wenatchee World
Published: January 22, 2025, 8:42am

WENTACHEE — A marquee of Sundance Film Festival lights up for a director raised in Quincy, Cole Webley, whose first feature dramatic film opens in Utah, where he has lived for 20 years now. The road trip movie “Omaha” is about a father driving his young son, daughter and their golden retriever for a few days, set against the economic crisis of 2008.

Sundance is “our American mecca of independent cinema,” Webley said. Independent and studio distributors attend to find films to distribute to larger audiences in a theatrical run. In a competitive and prestigious selection process, of 15,775 submissions from 156 countries, 86 movies were chosen for the 2025 festival, according to sundance.org.

As the only Sundance film made locally in the state of Utah, with collaboration alongside the Utah Film Commission, the cast and crew will be able to attend the opening on Jan. 23. Webley has compared the festival production to taking a pig to the Grant County Fair as a 4H kid — “showing this product we made that we’re so proud of,” he

Webley also works as a commercial director of big campaigns including Dicks Sporting Goods, Johnson & Johnson, RE/MAX, Cost Plus World Market, Oreo and Albertsons. In a parallel journey for 15 years, he’s made short films as well. The screenplay for “Omaha” was optioned from writer Robert Machoian as a script he made ten years prior, which only needed edits on 10% of the story.

The film’s cast includes John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis and Talia Balsam. The child actors, aged 6 and 9, were not overworked during the 27 days of filming, taking very short days compared to adult actors. Yet, “they never buckled. They never wanted to throw in the towel. They were there for it. We tried to make it fun,” Webley said.

Travelling through Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska, the intimate setting of a car’s interior contrasts with vast landscapes. Iconic road-trip moments like stopping for fast food, flying a kite or peeing along the side of the highway show the steps of a family’s journey towards the best life the provider can give them.

As one of six brothers, Webley recalls road trips with his own family from Quincy around the Pacific Northwest to wrestling tournaments in a camp trailer with “Eye of the Tiger” playing. In 1994, everyone took a road trip vacation all the way to Disneyland, which was amazing on his father’s farmer’s wage, he said.

In “Omaha,” the dad drives a 1991 Toyota Corolla wagon, “speaking to his character as a bit worn down and beat up, but there’s this warm sense of family,” Webley said. The fictional story gives a personal face to what could otherwise just be a statistic of a certain number of families during the hardships of the historical recession of 2008, he said.

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