Robbie said the idea for the film came to her while preparing for “Oppenheimer,” where she encountered the absence of women in narratives about scientific breakthroughs. “We forget that women have always been there—they just weren’t given the microphone,” she said in an interview with Deadline.
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The project is supported by the Women in Film fund and received a grant from the British Film Institute. Filming is scheduled for fall 2025 in Paris and New York, using authentic locations and reconstructed early 20th-century soundstages.
Critics are already calling the film a “potential 2026 Oscar contender,” particularly in the Best Original Screenplay and Best Director categories (director Greta Gerwig has been confirmed by the studio).
This isn’t Robbie’s first bold project: she previously produced Harley Quinn: The Awesome Squad and Barbie, but “The First Reel” is her most ambitious foray into historical cinema.
The film will also be part of LuckyChap’s broader initiative to create content about “forgotten women of history,” with biopics about the first female engineer, the first lesbian writer in the United States, and others in development.
In a world still dominated by male-dominated narratives, “The First Reel” could become not just a film, but a manifesto. And Margot Robbie, as always, is at the forefront of change.