Tyler-Marie Evans discusses her feature directorial debut, Pretty Babies, which premieres at the Edinburgh International Film Festival after years of financial hardship and rejection. The film matters as a female-centred examination of friendship, ambition and Hollywood’s promises, shaped by Evans’s determination to make it despite expecting to wait decades for the opportunity.

Starring Emily Alyn Lind and Sadie Stanley, the film follows two Texas teenagers who travel towards Hollywood after a violent incident, hoping to become stars like their Old Hollywood idols. Along the way they encounter sex work, which Evans says she aimed to portray without either stigma or glamour, while exploring women’s sexuality, intellect and search for identity; Christine Vachon is among its producers.