Wild Nights with Emily

Completed2018United States84 min

Emily Dickinson is writing, maintaining family connections and pursuing a relationship with Susan, the woman whose place in her life this film…Read more +Read less −

Emily Dickinson is writing, maintaining family connections and pursuing a relationship with Susan, the woman whose place in her life this film brings to the foreground. The image of a solitary poet gives way to someone witty, passionate and frustrated by the people who stand between her work and publication. Around Emily and Susan, relatives and literary gatekeepers develop their own accounts of who the poet is and what her writing means. Madeleine Olnek’s period comedy uses this tension to consider how a woman’s public story can be reshaped by those who preserve it. Drawing on Dickinson’s letters while offering its own dramatic interpretation, the film places creative ambition and the romance with Susan inside the same active, crowded life.

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Comedy Drama Romance

Sapphic characters & cast

Molly Shannon

as Emily Dickinson

Main sapphic character

1964-09-16Virgo

Apple TV credited performer publicity portrait, exact film cast panel

Susan Ziegler

as Susan Gilbert Dickinson

Main sapphic character

TMDB performer publicity portrait; exact film/character credit independently matched; no licence asserted, pending rights/editorial review

YOUR FIRST LOOK

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Details & credits

Country: United States
Language: English
Premiere: 2019-04-12
Runtime: 84 minutes
Director: Madeleine Olnek

Film distributor/platform exact-film key art; rights pending editorial review

Artwork source & permission status

Editorial review approved — rights not independently confirmed

Film distributor/platform exact-film key art; rights pending editorial review

Original publication ↗

Sources & editorial notes (11)

Last researched 2026-10-30. Editorially approved.

year: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
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country: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
language: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
directors: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
description: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
trailer url: Exact-film official platform Trailers section
watch links: Exact-film full-film destination; territory and entitlement limits apply; playback not performed
western cast: Exact-film official platform edition, cast and viewing destination checked 30 October 2026
premiere date: Selected platform/territory release date, not necessarily first world premiere
runtime minutes: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
classification note: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence
representation type: Sourced exact-film identity, lead eligibility and cast evidence