The idea sparked in Hell’s Kitchen. From her window seat, Priscilla watched the relentless morning rush—people streaming by, every single one gripping an oversized cup of coffee. Not one soul without it. Just a whirlwind of rush and stress. The dependency of that cup was undeniable.
Right there, the question came: “What would happen if coffee completely vanished?” – Priscilla thought.
From this humorous but unsettling thought, “Cast & Brew” took shape—a meta-film where disaster brews on a chaotic film set after a sudden worldwide coffee collapse which has the diva lead actor spiraling. The cameras can wait. The lines can wait. But his coffee? Absolutely not. Priscilla’s vision reveals a deeper truth beneath the comedy: our near- obsessive attachment to productivity, urgency, and caffeine as the fuel that keeps the machine running. She hopes audiences recognize how easy it is to lose sight of what truly matters when we’re constantly rushing, constantly performing, constantly “on.”
“In today’s productivity-driven culture,” Priscilla says, “we can still be successful without constantly being in ‘to-do’ mode. If we get too obsessed with coffee, we accelerate the loss of ourselves.” And really, the metaphor goes beyond caffeine; it speaks to anything that starts controlling us.
“If losing coffee can stop the world, maybe it’s time we slow down anyway.”- she says.
Produced and directed by Priscilla Zanni in 2024, the film has quickly found its rhythm on the festival circuit. It won the Audience Choice Award at the Hudson Valley Film Festival, followed by the Best Direction Award at the Chicago Feedback Film Festival. It also received an Honorable Mention at the Broad Humor Film Festival. Most recently, it earned a Best Director nomination at the Love & Hope International Film Festival in Barcelona, along with a Best Ensemble nomination at the Festival of Cinema NYC and Best Comedy nominations at both NoHo CineFest and the Route 66 Film Festival.“Cast & Brew” has screened coast to coast—New York, Washington DC, and California—and continues expanding its lineup with upcoming festivals in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Europe.
Cast & Brew also recently screened at The Valley Film Festival in The (818) Shorts Program at the iconic Laemmle NoHo 7—right in the neighborhood where Cast & Brew was filmed. It was also featured in a small Q&A segment on ABC7 News in Los Angeles, highlighting its momentum and audience appeal.
Despite its absurd premise, Cast & Brew demanded razor-sharp comedic timing from both the cast and Priscilla herself. Directing twelve actors in a single, rapidly escalating meltdown meant orchestrating chaos with precision—every reaction, interruption, and punchline had to land like a tightly choreographed dance. The film was shaped bicoastally, developed in New York and brought to life in Los Angeles, allowing Priscilla to blend the sharp, fast-paced humor of the East Coast with the stylized, character-driven energy of the West.
Audiences have praised that fusion, including filmmaker Kenneth Johnson, who called the short “a cup of comedy you won’t forget.” Moments like that solidify Priscilla’s voice as a director who can turn chaos into comedy and coffee disasters into laughs.
From a fleeting thought in a crowded café to an award-winning short film, Cast & Brew explores what happens when the things we rely on vanish — and how quickly we lose ourselves in the chaos.
