Actress DANA LYN BARON Questions Her Relevance in Disturbing Comedy Short ‘BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare’
Dana Lyn Baron stars in 'BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare'
Behind the scenes of 'BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare'
Dana Lyn Baron (photo by James DePietro)
Upcoming Screenings at FirstGlance LA 2025 and Idyllwild 2026
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, November 6, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Actress-writer-producer Dana Lyn Baron questions her relevance but displays resilience starring in the short film, BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare. The deeply emotional comedy tale is slated for a Special Screening at the FirstGlance Los Angeles Film Festival on November 15, 2025.BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare opens with Betty (Baron), a middle-aged actress, preparing for yet another laughably low-stakes one-liner when she is suddenly crippled by excruciating pain. Enter Mary (Tally McCormack), her young rival, eager to “help,” as Betty spirals into her neuroses about aging, irrelevance and survival in a cutthroat industry.
Directed by FirstGlance alum America Young (Gotham Knights, Back to Lyla) from a script written and co-produced by Baron along with producer Lauren Selman (Shimmer, The Ringmaster), BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare is a brazen, unflinching film that blends disturbing comedy with deep emotional nuance to claim space for every woman who refuses to be cast aside.
“BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare is the first film of the Betty & Mary Trilogy,” explains Baron. “I created it because I wanted to see women like me - complicated, funny, bruised, still standing - at the center of the story. Betty & Mary is my love letter to resilience, and my middle finger to the idea that we ever ‘age out’ of relevance.”
The film first premiered at LA Shorts International Film Festival and has since screened at the Broad Humor Film Festival and the Catalina Film Festival. It will continue on the festival circuit as an Official Selection at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema in March 2026.
As a trilogy, the series explores a parallel universe of films featuring the same two characters, Betty and Mary, as they navigate unique challenges in circumstances beyond their control — shaped by systems of gender, class, age, and power. The screenplay for the second film, BETTY & MARY: Neighbors, is already gaining momentum at Indie Short Fest and Independent Shorts Awards.
Baron is versatile actor and voiceover artist, she is best known for her role as Miss Rosen in Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, alongside Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem and J.K. Simmons. She was featured in David Fincher’s Academy Award-winning Mank with Oscar winner Gary Oldman and has appeared in highly acclaimed TV series such as Hacks, S.W.A.T., Interior Chinatown, This Is Us, Shameless, and The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Baron has also voiced iconic characters such as Sonya Blade in the award-winning Mortal Kombat video game series and Lady Liadrin in World of Warcraft.
As a producer, Baron brings a wealth of industry knowledge to her projects having experience at Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and working with Miramax and Scott Rudin Productions. Her last short film in the producer seat, Paul Budnitz’s Ultraviolet, screened at major festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival, WorldFest Houston, and Maui Film Festival. BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare marks her debut as a screenwriter and first project under her newly established A Long Story Short Productions banner.
BETTY & MARY: The Actors Prepare - Special Screening at the FirstGlance Film Festival
When: Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 5:00pm
Where: Laemmle North Hollywood 7, 5240 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601
Tickets: https://FGLA25.eventbrite.com
For more about DANA LYN BARON visit: DanaLynBaron.com
Follow on Instagram: @danalynbaron and @alongstoryshortprods
For BETTY & MARY: BettyAndMary.com or IG: @bettyandmaryfilm
Tammy Lynn
Spotlight PR Company
+1 310-867-1952
info@spotlightprcompany.com
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