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Madelaine Petsch is stepping fully into her post-Riverdale era, and her latest project might be the biggest swing of her career yet. The actress stars as Gemma in Pretty Babies, an indie drama that’s set to make its European premiere in the Official Competition lineup at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2026.
Petsch isn’t going it alone. She’s joined by a genuinely stacked ensemble: Ashley Benson, Emily Alyn Lind, and Sadie Stanley round out the lead cast of the film, which marks the feature directing debut of Tyler-Marie Evans, who also wrote the script. Lind plays Marie, Benson plays Sapphire, and Stanley plays Luna, filling out a story built around female friendship under pressure.
Pretty Babies: From Riverdale to the Road: Petsch’s Boldest Role Yet
And it is pressure. Pretty Babies follows two young girls who run away to Hollywood chasing stardom, only for their dreams to lead them into prostitution, trapping them in the dark underbelly of the sex work industry as they travel from Texas to California. It’s a far cry from Petsch’s Riverdale days, and it places her alongside Benson, who’s no stranger to unflinching material herself thanks to Spring Breakers and the Tribeca-premiered thriller McVeigh.
Behind the camera, the pedigree is just as notable. Christine Vachon of Killer Films and Jordan Wagner of Wagner Entertainment are producing, with Benson also taking a producer credit. For a first-time director, that’s the kind of backing that turns heads on the festival circuit. Evans has described the project as deeply personal to the team, calling it “a love letter to Old Hollywood” while noting the cast and crew have brought real excitement to pushing the script into new territory.
The rest of the ensemble reads like a who’s-who of rising television talent. Lind is fresh off Amazon’s We Were Liars, while Stanley most recently appeared in Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends alongside Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio. Petsch, meanwhile, isn’t slowing down either. She just closed out one franchise chapter as Maya in The Strangers – Chapter 3, which hit theaters this past February, and now she’s stepping into markedly different territory with Gemma in Pretty Babies.
With its Edinburgh slot locked in and a cast this recognizable, Pretty Babies is shaping up to be one of the more talked-about festival premieres of the year, the kind of gritty, character-driven indie that tends to generate awards buzz once it finds a distributor. Keep an eye on the festival’s official competition results for how it fares against the rest of the lineup.
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Pretty Babies
Two teenage girls run away to Hollywood, chasing stardom, but their dreams lead them into prostitution, trapping them in the dark underbelly of the sex work industry as they travel from Texas to California.
Release Date: August 14, 2026
Director: Tyler-Marie Evans
Cast: Ashley Benson , Emily Alyn Lind , Madelaine Petsch
