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The new Moana. The 20-year-old wunderkind filmmaker. The multi Tony Award winner. The \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d comedians. The next generation of Emilys. And the Australians at the heart of one of Sundance\u2019s biggest hits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There\u2019s more than a few up-and-coming talents to get excited about in the movies this summer.<\/a> The Associated Press spoke to 11 ones to watch. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n Catherine Laga\u02bbaia (\u201clung-uh-aye-uh\u201d) found out she got \u201cMoana\u201d<\/a> on a school day. It was around 8:15 a.m. and she\u2019d just heard the best news of her life after a very stressful year of auditioning. But the celebration would have to wait: It was swimming carnival day and she was on deck for the 400-meter backstroke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI guess, like, the water vibes carried through,\u201d said Laga\u02bbaia, 20, laughing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Laga\u02bbaia, who is one of eight children, grew up around acting in Sydney, Australia. Her father played Captain Typho in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d prequels, she went to a performing arts high school and a lot of her siblings are in theater. Two of her sisters even auditioned for \u201cMoana\u201d alongside her, but she was just the right age at the right time, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The animated film meant the world to Laga\u02bbaia, who is of Samoan heritage, and she\u2019s acutely aware of the big expectations for the live action film (out July 10) \u2014 she has them for herself too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI felt a fair bit of impostor syndrome stepping into it,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve made some great changes, and we\u2019ve kept a lot of the stuff that holds the heart of the film the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n Teenage boys Ryan (Stacy Clausen, 21) and Naim (Joe Bird, 19) are drawn to one another in their backwater Australian community in \u201cLeviticus,\u201d the \u201cconversion therapy\u201d horror that broke out at the Sundance Film Festival.<\/a> It hits theaters on June 19. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt is about growing up queer and how the fear of growing up queer can block someone mentally from acting on their desires, and physically,\u201d Clausen said. \u201cBut I think that there is something in it for everyone, like whether you\u2019re LGBTQIA or not, it\u2019s about love.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n They knew they had made something special, but it\u2019s been affirming to see it resonate with audiences. When the trailer posted on YouTube, Bird noticed one commenter who wrote that they wished they\u2019d had this film when they were younger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt just takes one person to be inspired, or you know say, \u2018Oh, I wish I had a film like this\u2019 to know that you\u2019ve kind of done your job,\u201d Bird said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about connecting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n Aleshea Harris chose a two-time Tony-winner, Kara Young<\/a>, and a relative newcomer, Mallori Johnson, to anchor the big screen adaptation of her Obie-winning play \u201cIs God Is.\u201d The story is centered on twin sisters searching for their abusive father, who burned and scarred them as babies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Young<\/a> plays Racine the Rough One; Johnson is Anaia the Quiet One. After fending for themselves their entire lives are set on an epic road trip and a journey of revenge and reckoning. It\u2019s in theaters on May 15.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAnaia depends a lot on Racine to protect her,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI think that they\u2019ve set up a dynamic since they were children \u2026 they have this kind of codependent relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And although both Young and Johnson are in different phases of their careers, their enthusiasm for the material, and getting to be part of it, is identical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGetting into the world of \u2018Is God Is\u2019 feels like an ancestral calling in some wild, beautiful, almost like indescribable way,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt\u2019s an epic road trip. It\u2019s a Greek tragedy. It\u2019s a love story between two sisters \u2026. I lost my train of thought because I just got so hyped.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n Kane Parsons was a teenager when he was signed to direct his first feature, based on his viral YouTube series \u201cBackrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The concept was inspired by an internet creepypasta that imagined never-ending expanse rooms and hallways full of fluorescent lights, old carpet and monotonous yellow paint; He took that idea and ran with it, creating unnerving videos from his bedroom with the help of the open-source 3D graphics software Blender. Soon both James Wan and Shawn Levy\u2019s companies were interested in taking it to the next level.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the film, out May 29, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a struggling furniture store owner who seemingly slips out of reality. Renate Reinsve co-stars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think of this as inherently horror-driven; it\u2019s definitely not a building full of monsters,\u201d Parsons, 20, said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been more interested in the sort of man looking in the mirror version.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \u201cSNL\u201d cast members Kam Patterson<\/a>, 27, and Ben Marshall<\/a>, 30, play a couple of Gen Z guys on a bachelor trip, with Marcello Hern\u00e1ndez, groom-to-be Mason Gooding and a middle-aged colleague (Kevin Hart) who was accidentally added to the group chat in the new Netflix comedy \u201c72 Hours\u201d (streaming July 24).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was the most fun you could possibly have shooting a movie,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Between goofing around in a mansion in New Jersey and hanging in Miami with Hern\u00e1ndez, it was, Patterson said, like summer camp. And Hart was their de facto counselor. They teased Gooding about never having his shirt on, Marshall for being so uniquely bad at jet skiing and Patterson for that time someone left him with one of the production assistant\u2019s walkie talkies and for 5 minutes he had an open mic to the entire crew. That energy continued when the cameras were on too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we said one word that\u2019s actually in the script,\u201d Marshall laughed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Patterson chimed in: \u201cNot at all. We take that script and threw it out the window.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n Call them the new Emilys. Or, maybe don\u2019t. But there\u2019s a new batch of smart, young things manning the desks at \u201cRunway\u201d in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d<\/a> (now in theaters).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n Catherine Laga\u02bbaia, \u201cMoana\u201d
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\n Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen, \u201cLeviticus\u201d
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\n Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, \u201cIs God Is\u201d
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\n Kane Parsons, \u201cBackrooms\u201d
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\n The bachelors, \u201c72 Hours\u201d
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\n The new assistants in \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d
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