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Chronic insomniacs Zach and Sophia wander the pre-dawn streets of New York City on an impromptu first date. This award-winning indie romance stars Nyambi Nyambi (The Good Fight), Rebecca De Ornelas (The Videoblogs) and Ajay Naidu (Office Space).

"Best U.S. Feature," New York Independent Cinema Awards

"...romance at its most elemental and charming." - Movie Nation

"...a wonderfully relatable comedy.” - In Their Own League

"...not your average romantic comedy." - Black Girl Nerds

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About

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THE cat-nap summary…

Chronic insomniacs Zach and Sophia wander the pre-dawn streets of New York City on an impromptu first date. This award-winning indie romance stars Nyambi Nyambi (The Good Fight, Mike&Molly), Rebecca De Ornelas (The Videoblogs, Naked) and Ajay Naidu (Office Space).

“An indie gem…” — Damien Swaby, Filmmaking Conversations

"One of the best films I've seen in the last five years of doing this show." – Casey Ryan, Cutting Room Floor

"...a picture of humanity at its most vulnerable." – Film Daily

“Best U.S. Feature"
2020 New York Independent Cinema Awards

"Best Feature Drama"
2020 Alternative Film Festival Toronto

"NYC Cityscape Award"
Big Apple Film Festival

THE LONGER story

Sophia can’t sleep. Neither can Zach. Both have gotten far too used to it.

When the pair meet each other randomly at 3AM, in the only spot nearby open for coffee, sparks don’t necessarily fly. With a gentle nudge from bodega owner Samir, and with nothing better to do, Zach and Sophia decide to amble together through the predawn hours until she has to leave for her breakfast shift. Although Sophia is guarded and Zach appears weary, each seems to instantly connect to the other.

At the end of their hours together, the question remains – Will there be another date, or will their respective hangups sink the possibility for romance?

Starring Nyambi Nyambi (The Good Fight, Mike & Molly) and Rebecca De Ornelas (The Videoblogs, Multiverse), The Sleepless touches upon resonant topics such as mental health, addiction, gender dynamics, and the nonsense choices people make when bringing items to a deserted island. In his second feature film, Michael DiBiasio (The Videoblogs) beautifully captures the predawn streets of New York City while seamlessly weaving themes of insomnia and mental health into this entertaining and unique romantic comedy.

THE COMPLETE HISTORY

“I couldn’t sleep for a year. Insomnia had always been a problem for me,

but never one that lasted more than a couple of days at once.

This time, I had to seek help. Now, I sleep.

Most of the time.

And yet I often wake up very early, having slept five or six hours.

It’s peaceful, most of the time. It can also feel lonely. Alienating.

One day I was up before 4AM and needed coffee and didn’t have any. I sought out the closest place where I could find some. Just that week, I had also been studying low-light digital photography, and what was now capable with some ingenuity and willingness.

Then I emerged into the morning for that caffeine, and felt my neighborhood slowly -- very slowly -- stirring around me, and the idea came to me.

What if two people met under these circumstances? The predawn hours can be so raw, and yet so simple. What if...such a pair also took a chance on each other? And what if I chose a low-light camera and some fine actors and took a chance on this idea?

What came of all this is The Sleepless, a meditative, funny exploration of one of those odd spaces in life, inhabited as such by our two insomniacs, Zach and Sophia. I hope you enjoy it.”

— Michael (Writer and Director)

 
 

cast

 

Their talent will keep you up all night.

 

 

Nyambi Nyambi (Zach)

Nyambi Nyambi currently stars as investigator Jay DiPersia in CBS All Access’ “The Good Fight.” The acclaimed legal drama wrapped its fourth season and is awaiting its fifth season premiere later this year. Nyambi is most notably known for starring alongside Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy in the CBS sitcom “Mike & Molly.” For six seasons, Nyambi portrayed the sarcastic Senegalese waiter/café owner Samuel. Nyambi recently completed production on the upcoming Billy Crystal and Alan Zweibel film “Here Today.”

Nyambi’s diverse list of television credits include PBS’ “Mercy Street,” NBC's "Blindspot" and “American Koko,” an ABC digital series from Viola Davis’ production company JuVee Productions. Additionally, Nyambi voiced the role of ‘Martian Manhunter’ in the Warner Brothers/DC Entertainment animated features “The Death of Superman” and “Reign of the Supermen.”

A lover of theater, Nyambi has participated in New York City’s Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. Working alongside Al Pacino and Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Nyambi starred in “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Winter’s Tale.”

Nyambi is a first-generation Nigerian-American, born on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bucknell University before earning his Masters of Fine Arts from the Graduate Acting Program at New York University. He played four years of Division 1 basketball for Bucknell.

A comic book aficionado and avid gamer, Nyambi writes and draws in his spare time and has two published works as an author.

Rebecca De Ornelas (Sophia)

Nominated for "Best Actress" for her role as Sophia in The Sleepless by both the 2020 Alternative Film Festival Toronto and the 2020 Seattle Film Festival, Rebecca also recently starred in Naked, named Best Comedy Short by the 2020 Seoul International Film Festival. 

In addition to playing the lead role in The Videoblogs (“a provocative indie”, RogerEbert.com), Rebecca has appeared on several New York stages, including as part of Alice Spivak’s On The Road repertory company. She holds a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

Her theater credits include a one woman-show called Naked (performed in multiple venues), Amy in The Showoff (The Barrow Group Theater), Dawn in Lobby Hero (Shetler Theater), Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hudson River Park), and many more.

Ajay Naidu (Vivek)

Naidu's first professional acting job was Touch and Go which he won from an open call. He starred in the TV movie Lady Blue as Paquito. This was followed by an ABC Afterschool Specials episode No Greater Gift, in which he played Nick Santana, a 12-year-old boy with a terminal illness. Naidu then appeared in one of the first-season episodes of the original MacGyver TV series, To Be a Man, in 1986. Other film credits when younger include Where the River Runs Black and Vice Versa. Between 1988 and 1995, he worked extensively in classical theater.

Naidu returned to film acting in SubUrbia, for which he was praised for his role as the convenience store owner Nazeer Choudhury, and for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit award for best supporting actor. Onscreen, Naidu starred in the cult film Office Space, as well as appearing in such films as K-PAX, SUBWAYStories: Tales from the Underground, Requiem for a Dream, Bad Santa, The War Within, The Guru, Waterborne, Loins of Punjab Presents, and many others.

He co-starred as a series regular in the sitcom LateLine and had guest-starring roles on the television dramas The Sopranos, The West Wing, and Bored to Death. Naidu has been working extensively with musicians from the Asian underground music movement for many years as a dancer and an emcee. His vocals have appeared on many records, most notably Talvin Singh's Mercury Award winner "OK."

In 2006, Naidu directed his first feature film, Ashes, which had its release in 2010 and for which he won Best Actor accolades from the New York Indian Film Festival in New York and the London Asian Film Festival. Naidu's most recent theater credits include 'The Master and Margarita' with the Complicité theater company, a world tour of Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' with Complicité, 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui' alongside Al Pacino, directed by Simon McBurney, and 'The Little Flower of East Orange' alongside Ellen Burstyn, at New York's Public Theater directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. In 2001, Naidu's solo theater piece 'Darwaza' was a sold-out hit at New York's LAByrinth Theater Company.

 

Team sleepless

 

We’re up all night! Making this film.

 

 

Michael DiBiasio (Writer and Director)

Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas is an award-winning Writer and Filmmaker currently residing in South Burlington, VT. His latest film, The Sleepless, was named “Best U.S. Feature” by the 2020 New York Independent Cinema Awards, “Best Drama” at the 2020 Alternative Film Festival, and “Best Experimental Feature” at the 2020 Montreal Independent Film Festival. The Sleepless premiered as the closing film at the 2020 Big Apple Film Festival, where it also received the NYC Cityscape Award. Michael’s first feature, The Videoblogs, screened nationally in 2016, and was called “...a provocative indie” by RogerEbert.com. His first novel, Cessation, published in 2021. Michael is a graduate of Columbia University. He is most proud of becoming a dad to his badass daughter in 2020.

Josh Reinhold (Producer)

Most recently, Josh Reinhold produced the short film A Million Eyes, starring Joe Morton, Katie Lowes and newcomer Elijah Cooper. Previously, he was Head of Development at Miriam Segal’s Good Films, where he oversaw a diverse slate of seven feature projects. He was an Executive Producer on the The Postcard Killings, a serial killer thriller based on the #1 New York Times Bestselling novel by James Patterson and Liza Marklund, directed by Danis Tanovic and starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Famke Janssen, and Cush Jumbo. 

Josh was previously Vice President at Matt Alvarez Productions under Alvarez’s first-look deal with Broad Green Pictures. He executive produced and oversaw production on the Netflix original film Step Sisters, directed by Charles Stone (Drumline) starring Megalyn Echikunwoke, Naturi Naughton, and Matt McGorry. 

Prior, Josh was a Creative Executive at Relativity Media. He served as the studio executive on Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker, and Luis Prieto’s Kidnap, starring Halle Berry. Josh worked in post-production on Camille Delamarre’s Brick Mansions starring Paul Walker and Richard Raymond’s Desert Dancer starring Reece Ritchie and Freida Pinto. 

Josh previously served as Co-Head of Relativity’s Story Department. He got his start working in publicity at Overture Films and Relativity Media 

Simon Taufique (Executive Producer, Composer)

SIMON SOHEL TAUFIQUE is a British-Indian award-winning and Emmy-nominated composer, educator and producer, based in New York. He has scored many films and collaborated with dozens of notable filmmakers and musicians, including M. Night Shyamalan, Kevin Smith, Julian Casablancas, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Anja Marquardt, Mary Harron, Sofian Khan and David Torn. His undergraduate studies focused on Politics and Economics after which he studied Music Technology in graduate school at NYU with an emphasis on experimental and non-Western music. His work is largely inspired by character and emotion. His music has been described as haunting while also incorporating a blend of non-western traditions with orchestral & electronic music.

Rebecca De Ornelas (Executive Producer, “Sophia”)

Nominated for "Best Actress" for her role as Sophia in The Sleepless by both the 2020 Alternative Film Festival Toronto and the 2020 Seattle Film Festival, Rebecca also recently starred in Naked, named Best Comedy Short by the 2020 Seoul International Film Festival. In addition to playing the lead role in The Videoblogs (“a provocative indie”, RogerEbert.com), Rebecca has appeared on several New York stages, including as part of Alice Spivak’s On The Road repertory company. She holds a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.