If we can’t escape the Matrix, how do we decide from within it what matters most?
2025
Feature Film | Sci-fi
In the wake of an unexpected visit, an isolated scientist studying fungi reckons with the confines of her very existence.
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY
Jenna Kanell
PRODUCED BY
Thang Ho & Tony Poon
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY
Kristian Zuniga
Synopsis
To Jonah, data is everything. She’s happiest alone, in nature, immersed in the research of fungal networks.
But impatient for progress, her corporate pharmaceutical employer intervenes, deploying a supervisor who gives Jonah one week to prove the merits of her work.
Through their time together, an existential terror overtakes Jonah upon discovering the truth about the very nature of her reality.
And when you tug on one thread, the whole sweater comes apart.
Looking behind the curtain of her own existence uncovers even darker revelations about her life, everyone she loves, and the entirety of all biological life on Earth.
The betrayal suffocates her as she drowns in a prison of her own creation. In its wake, Jonah's forced to confront the next stage of mankind's evolution.
She’s left with a choice: to end her consciousness forever…or to keep going. To find gratitude in the profound human experience of joy, hope, love, and loss.
To make peace with meaninglessness, and create meaning anyway.
Film Comps
Coherence
Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Directed by James Ward Byrkit
X
Everything Everwhere All At Once
Epic | Sci-Fi | Fantasy
Directed by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
Why De Novo?
De Novo explores fungal biotechnology, consciousness, and the price of progress, grounded in real scientific ventures.
Unlike typical AI films, it sees AI as an extension of humanity, not an antagonist. It challenges digital ascension narratives by addressing DNA’s data limits and the consequences of an unescapable reality.
Told from a woman’s perspective, De Novo avoids defining her by romance, assault, or motherhood. Its visual style blends animation, stop motion, and live-action, creating an intimate yet expansive love letter to Earth and a cautionary tale for humanity’s future.
Characters
An androgynous mycologist who passionately derives fulfillment from her scientific research, even while at philosophical odds with the major pharmaceutical company she works for. She prefers the isolation of the wilderness to the company of others, and believes everything can be boiled down to data.
Jonah
cast
Jenna Kanell
Aviyaan
Jonah's romantic partner, and a fellow scientist, albeit one who works in a lab. Having watched his highly successful mother die alone, to him his job is just that. Hopelessly in love, he has the heart of a poet, and wants nothing more than for Jonah to come home so they can build a life together.
cast
To Be Announced
A bioethicist, who on behalf of the corporation interrupts to evaluate over the course of a week whether to renew Jonah's research grant. She takes her work quite seriously, at the intersection of philosophy and science. But eventually, her true intentions erupt to the surface.
Chiasa
cast
To Be Announced
Paul
Jonah's mentor and father figure, he's devoted his life to building a piece of fungal biotechnology: a machine powered by mycelium. He helped usher Jonah into her field and her job and continues to provide guidance. But he's dying.
cast
Frank Crim
Current Status
Development ⎯ Pre-Pro ⎯ Production
“It's a love letter to the breathtaking planet at our fingertips. It's a reminder that we're a part of said world, rather than separate from it. We forget how tiny we are in the massive scheme of the universe, and how little time we have. We can choose to let such a fact crush us, or lean into a sense of awe and wonder, and focus on the things that truly matter. Before action must come awareness: when we look outwards, we look inwards.”
— Jenna Kanell
