When a desperate indie filmmaker reluctantly accepts a job on a made-for-TV Christmas movie, she must learn about life, love, and teamwork from the curmudgeonly, alcoholic director and oddball cast and crew as she stands up to the unscrupulous producer threatening to end her career for good. 

SYNOPSIS:

Emery, an aspiring sci-fi filmmaker with a reputation for being difficult, learns that she’s been fired from yet another job. To avoid moving home to Wisconsin and burying her dream of conquering Hollywood, she accepts a job as the Assistant Director on a Comfort Channel made-for-TV movie, Christmas in Cranberry Falls.

Emery immediately second-guesses her decision when she arrives in Canada and hitches an Uber from Jackson, a ruggedly handsome local with a cartop full of canoes. Once on set at the charming Grandview Lodge, she’s welcomed by Rosemary, a Christmas movie super fan, and its confronted with the disastrous production: half the crew has quit; George, the talented but curmudgeonly alcoholic director, is on the brink of being fired; and Ryan, the not-so-talented male lead can’t seem to muster any chemistry with his co-star, Alyssa. Her situation is further complicated when Randall, the film's money-crunching producer, offers her a director role in future productions if she’s willing to help him get rid of George. She protests, but knows that this may be her last chance of working in the film industry and she desperately needs money to develop her dream project: Escape from Cryonis, a film about a gang of gender fluid vigilantes who rescue men kidnapped by the evil planet Cryonis to spawn an army of semi-human male sex slaves.

In the vein of Waiting for Guffman, Emery learns to rely on a peculiar but lovable cast and crew to help her find her way, and despite her aversion to the tropes of made-for-TV Christmas movies, she becomes immersed in the production. She takes matters into her own hands and reorganizes scenes and rewrites the script in clever ways to keep the film on schedule and in budget. She eventually bonds with Colleen, a seasoned theater actor and Cameron and Diego, the camera man and key grip who continually bicker about esoteric topics such as cryptocurrency, human cloning, and whether toilet paper should hang over or under. At the same time, a romance blossoms between Emery and Jackson who is not only an Uber driver, but also a bartender at the tavern near the lodge, and a gifted canoe builder.

Emery comes to see George simultaneously as a mentor and cautionary tale - someone who has given up his dream of making award-winning documentaries for a job to pay the bills and avoid losing his kids in a custody battle. The future of the film begins to look brighter until George learns that Charlie Reid, the friend and Comfort Channel executive who has been protecting him from Randall, has died in a helicopter crash. George goes on a bender, gets fired, and it’s up to Emery to direct the rest of the film, with only a few days left. She saves the film with her decision to make the on screen romance between Ryan and David, Ryan’s real life love interest. But, just as they are about to wrap, Randall appears on set and fires them all for changing the storyline. Angry, Emery gives up, abandons Jackson and her friends, and flees home, only to become depressed for destroying her career.

In true Christmas movie fashion, a miracle happens when Rosemary, the fairy-like Production Assistant who we learn was never actually a Comfort Channel employee, appears at Emery's house. She wants to invest in Escape from Cryonis and with the help of the currently unemployed Christmas in Cranberry Falls cast and crew, they manage to make Emery’s film. All the while, George, who has been MIA since being fired, shows up for the wrap party with kids in tow. Emery hides her joy when she sees that George also brought Jackson. The final scenes are straight from a Comfort Channel Christmas movie, only better. After watching the exhilarating Cryonis trailer, Emery and Jackson come to terms with her abrupt departure. They share the perfect kiss in the falling snow while the party morphs into a giant snowball fight. We fade to white as George throws a snowball at the camera.

CHRISTMAS IN CRYONIS