MARLEE MATLIN: NOT ALONE ANYMORE

A Groundbreaking Portrait from First-Time Director Shoshannah Stern

97 mins | USA | 2025

TRAILER

Canadian Theatrical Premiere
July 25, 2025

Toronto – TIFF Lightbox – Tickets
Vancouver – VIFF Centre – Tickets
more cities to follow

Screenings will include Open Captions

The Canadian Theatrical Premiere of Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore begins July 25 at Toronto’s TIFF Lightbox, and Vancouver’s VIFF Centre. This deeply personal, visually immersive feature documentary about trailblazing Oscar®-winning actor and lifelong advocate Marlee Matlin. The film offers a revelatory and raw portrait of Matlin’s life told in her own words and in her native American Sign Language (ASL).

Following its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and its Canadian festival premiere at Hot Docs, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore opened recently in New York to widespread critical acclaim. And now, the upcoming Canadian theatrical premieres will mark an exciting new chapter for first-time filmmaker Shoshannah Stern, whose groundbreaking debut is itself a history-maker: it’s the first American Masters feature directed entirely by a Deaf filmmaker.

At just 21, Marlee Matlin made history as the first Deaf performer to win an Academy Award®, catapulting into the Hollywood spotlight with her role in Children of a Lesser God. The film traces her seismic rise, personal and professional challenges – including addiction, abuse, and industry marginalization – and her tireless fight for accessibility, representation, and equity.

But this isn’t just a biography. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is a cinematic reclamation of narrative where ASL is not just the medium, but the message. With no conventional voiceovers, the film embraces split-screen conversations and stylized captioning, centering Deaf voices on their own terms and transforming how stories are told and seen.

“Marlee has had to spend much of her career explaining herself,” says director Shoshanna Stern. “I wanted to create a space where she didn’t have to, where she could just be. This is a conversation, not an interview. A story told by and for our community.”

Featuring candid interviews with family, friends, and collaborators, Henry Winkler, Aaron Sorkin, Sian Heder, and many others. The documentary also includes unprecedented archival material and behind-the-scenes access, including Matlin’s historic moment as the first Deaf woman to join the Director’s Guild of America.

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is a co-production of American Masters Pictures, Actual Films, ITVS, Afterimage Public Media, and Impact Partners, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ford Foundation, and the Dolby Creator Lab, among others. It will air in 2025 as part of the landmark American Masters series on PBS.