EXCLUSIVE: Braham Entertainment will be at the Cannes Market this year with Angel City, the debut feature from Noel Braham. 

Noel Braham wrote, directed, and produced the film. He also stars in the film alongside Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan, Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, two-time Super Bowl champion and four-time Pro Bowler Dwight Hicks, and Emmy winner Kim Estes. 

The ensemble is joined by Stakiah Lynn Washington (Primo), Helen Madelyn Kim (Station 19), Roxanne Beckford (A Different World), and Bria Samoné Henderson (The Good Doctor).

Angel City follows a second-generation immigrant rideshare driver who defies his family’s expectations to pursue his childhood love of acting, only to watch his housing security collapse as he chases the dream. 

The film’s official synopsis reads: “As the looming specter of homelessness closes in, he maintains a carefully curated social media persona that hides his growing desperation, navigating the beautiful and brutal realities of a city built on perception. Described as a dramatic odyssey with comedic undertones, the film is a raw, soulful portrait of ambition, identity, and the cost of chasing what you love.” 

Angel City is an adaptation of Braham’s short film Watchtower, which received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Special Class Film and Outstanding Special Class Directing. The film draws from Braham’s own experience sleeping in hostels and out of his car when he first moved to Los Angeles in 2013. Braham is also the founder of the Micheaux Film Festival.

“I was sleeping in hostels and out of my car when I first moved to Los Angeles. One of my PAs was sleeping in a tent encampment between days on our set. That’s the LA most people never see — the city beneath the city,” Braham said in a statement. 

“Angel City is my attempt to make it visible. The film is about chasing your dreams while paying a cost most people won’t talk about. It’s for anyone — artist or not — who refuses to give up on what they believe in.”