Spike Lee, Joan Chen Board Liz Rao’s Short ‘The Truck,’ a Post-Roe Thriller, as EPs
— Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter
”“Madeline’s Madeline” is the most originally and boldly edited film that I’ve seen in a while…The over-all construction of the film, which is both meticulously calculated and ecstatically free-form, seems to replicate the play of one person’s mind—both the drama of Madeline’s consciousness and its powerful unconscious overtones and undercurrents.”
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
”Our narrative award went to Elizabeth Rao’s “The Truck,” a film that works in both the micro and the macro, telling a story of two teenagers (Shirley Chen & Daniel Zolghadri) trying to obtain a morning-after pill in an area of the country where that’s becoming increasingly difficult. Beautifully shot and tenderly performed, it’s a special short."
— Brian Tallerico, Roger Ebert.com
32nd Hamptons International Film Festival Reveals Award Winners
WME Unveils 2024 Lineup For Student Short Film Showcase Futurefest
— Matt Grobar, Deadline
The New Yorker’s Oscar Picks for Best Picture and Best Film Editing, Madeline’s Madeline
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
”Elizabeth Rao, writer-director of live-action short “The Truck,” about a young couple trying to obtain morning-after pills in a post-Roe vs. Wade America, secured one of her professors, Spike Lee, and Joan Chen as EPs...Chen adored the “emotional intimacy” of Rao’s work, “how honest the performances feel, and how her writing builds tension.”
— Lesley O’Toole, The Los Angeles Times
“Blends the romance of Americana—open roads, convenience-store lights, dusty afternoons—with the lurking menace of a country tightening its grip on bodily autonomy…Verdict: A Quiet Thunderbolt. The Truck feels like a fuse lit at exactly the right cultural moment. 10/10.”
— Jane Broder, Arts Muse Magazine, Film Review: The Truck — Fierce, Intimate Short Poised for Oscar Attention, Powered by a Rising Female Director
“‘The Truck” arrives with the urgency of a headline and the intimacy of a diary entry…Shirley Chen and Daniel Zolghadri deliver emotionally raw, quietly devastating performances that ground the political in the personal.”
— Nolan Carr, We Love Short Film, Oscar Momentum Builds for Liz Rao’s Unshakable ‘The Truck’
“Rao’s film is raw, immediate, and unapologetically political, yet grounded in a deeply human love story. The stakes are personal, emotional, and heartbreakingly current…The Truck stands firmly in the lineage of socially vital cinema.”
— Film and TV Business, Awards Spotlight: The Four Oscar-Qualified Shorts Redefining Awards Season Storytelling
“Suspended between memory and modern anxiety, warm, grain-like textures overlaying a steadily building sense of dread…Rao frames the story through lived emotional detail, small, uncomfortable, painfully real moments that reveal how national headlines transform into intimate, personal stakes.”
— Arts Muse Magazine, Liz Rao Emerges as a Defining New Voice With Her Oscar-Qualified Short ‘The Truck’
”In an era when reproductive rights in the United States are increasingly contested, Liz Rao’s “The Truck” arrives with the clarity and force of a filmmaker who understands both the urgency of the moment and the quietness with which fear often settles into the lives of young people.
She captures the way girls learn to assess danger, the ways they whisper their fears, the ways their bodies move through spaces where authority is both omnipresent and opaque.
The film is not simply about a young couple trying to secure a morning after pill, it is about the surveillance of female bodies in a country sliding backwards, and the deeply human cost of that regression.”
— Film and TV Business, The Truck — Liz Rao’s Fierce, Tender Entry into Asian American Cinema and the Academy Awards
“Sometimes you don’t realize how big moments of your life force you to grow up. We are so jolted by worry or stress as we experience something, we don’t notice that our souls expand a little bit more.” — Joey Moser, The Contending, Liz Rao On Growing Up In Unexpected Places for ‘The Truck’
Q&A with Liz Rao: The Truck | Oscar-Qualified Short Film: The Search for the Morning After Pill in Americana
— Ward Bond, Bond on Cinema
“ Rao delivers a sharp, urgent, and human portrait of young people coming of age in a country where their rights are increasingly contested.”
— We Love Short Films, The New Wave: Female Directors Reshaping Cinema for the Next Generation
Gotham Awards — Hilary Lewis, Allison Crist, The Hollywood Reporter
Gotham Award Nominations — Hilary Lewis, The Hollywood Reporter
Santa Barbara Film Festival Sets Full 2025 Program, Will Partner With Direct Relief To Raise Funds For L.A. Wildfires — Pete Hammond, Deadline
‘Madeline’s Madeline’ from Oscilloscope & ’Magnolia’s Skate Kitchen’ Bow Strong in Exclusive Runs: Specialty Box Office — Brian Brooks, Deadline
‘Madeline’s Madeline’ Review: Josephine Decker Has Made a Mind-Scrambling Masterpiece — Sundance 2018 — David Ehrlich, Indiewire
The Truck: A Haunting Examination of a Post-Roe World — Beth Nugent, Epigram UK
Filmmaker Interview with Liz Rao — Jonathan Ytreberg, The Oscar Project Podcast
Favorite Oscar-Qualified Short Films of 2025 — We Love Short Films
Filmmaker Liz Rao on Power, Adolescence, and Post-Roe America — Oscar Contending Series
Director’s Q&A: This Triangle of Lynchian Americana — Isaac Feldberg, Chicago Critics Film Festival
Love Without Power: Liz Rao on the Dangers of Growing Up in Small Town America, and The Truck — Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film
Liz Rao’s ‘The Truck’ Highlights the American Reality of Women — Lara Rosales, Eulalie Magazine
Sun Valley Film Festival Announces 2025 Lineup and Honorees — Joey Moser, The Contending
The Sun Valley Film Festival is a Hidden Gem of Films, Celebrities, and Events in Idaho — Sabina Dana Plasse, Film Threat
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gus Van Sant to Receive Vision Award at Sun Valley Film Festival — Leia Mendoza, Variety