**FREE** Q&Awards: THE PLAGUE Virtual Screening &

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At an all-boys water polo camp, a socially anxious twelve-year-old is pulled into a cruel tradition targeting an outcast with an illness they call “The Plague.” But as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real. (Synopsis by IFC Films)

Charlie Polinger is a filmmaker whose debut feature, THE PLAGUE, premiered to acclaim in Un Certain Regard at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and will be released December 24 by IFC. The film, drawing from Polinger’s personal experiences at a summer sports camp, stars Joel Edgerton alongside a cast of emerging young talent and earned the Grand Prize and Critics Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival, among many other accolades. Polinger also received the Breakthrough Director Award at the Denver Film Festival in November. The Plague has also earned nominations for Best Feature, Best Lead Performance and Best Breakthrough Performance for the 2026 Independent Spirit Awards. He is set to begin production on his second feature, THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, with A24 and Picturestart, starring Mikey Madison and Lea Seydoux and is co-writing a live-action BRATZ movie for Amazon MGM Studios alongside his creative partner Lucy McKendrick. Polinger will also be producing FANGS, a black comedy written by McKendrick. Polinger and McKendrick are the founders of the independent production company Doublethink.

Lucy McKendrick is a filmmaker and actor from Melbourne, Australia. She is in post-production on her feature directorial debut Fangs, which she also wrote and stars in. The project is produced by her creative partner Charlie Polinger (The Plague), Rebecca Yeldham (Motorcycle Diaries, The Gift) and Michael Costigan (Brokeback Mountain, Bigger Splash) through Jason Bateman's Aggregate Films. As a producer, Lucy’s most recent project, The Plague, premiered in the Official Selection at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard section. After its premiere, the film was quickly scooped up by Independent Film Company (IFC) and released theatrically on December 24, 2025. McKendrick received a nomination for Best Picture at the 2026 Indie Spirit Awards along with the film’s two other nominations for Best Lead Performance and Best Breakthrough Performance. Upcoming, she is producing The Masque of the Red Death directed by Polinger with A24 and Picturestart, starring Mikey Madison and Lea Seydoux, with production beginning in early 2026. Additionally, McKendrick is co-writing a live-action BRATZ movie for Amazon MGM studios with Polinger. Previously, Lucy wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the short film Fuck Me, Richard, which debuted at SXSW. Lucy is represented by CAA.