Sophie Hyde Opens Up About the Real Queer Family Behind 'Jimpa'

Director Sophie Hyde is used to telling intimate stories on screen. But with Jimpa, she says she may have shared more of herself - and her family - than ever before.

The new feature, which opens the 33rd Mardi Gras Film Festival, is closely inspired by Hyde’s own life. In a new episode of Australian Story, Hyde reflects on what it meant to turn her family history into a film.

“I can’t believe how vulnerable we’ve been,” she says in the program. “I can’t believe I let my family be in all of this.”

The Real Story Behind Jimpa

In the film, Olivia Colman plays Hannah, a filmmaker who travels to Amsterdam with her teenage child, Frances, to reconnect with her father, Jimpa - played by John Lithgow. The character of Jimpa is based on Hyde’s own father.

When Hyde was just over a year old, her father came out as gay to her mother. Despite the separation, the family continued living together for several years. That experience - growing up in a household that didn’t follow traditional expectations - shaped Hyde’s understanding of identity, openness, and family.

Those early dynamics later took on new meaning when Hyde’s own child, Aud Mason-Hyde, began identifying as non-binary.

In Jimpa, Frances forms a close bond with their grandfather and expresses a desire to stay with him in Amsterdam. But plans shift when Jimpa’s health begins to decline, forcing the family to confront both the present and unresolved tensions from the past.

The film explores intergenerational queerness, caregiving, and the emotional complexity of family storytelling.

Bringing Family History To Screen

Hyde describes Jimpa as her most personal project to date. While she has worked internationally - including directing Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande - this film required a different level of honesty.

“The gift I was given by my dad was that you could live as your full, true self in the world,” Hyde says. “He showed that you don’t have to reject parts of your life.”

Aud Mason-Hyde appears in the film as a version of themselves. Working under their mother’s direction - including filming intimate scenes - was at times uncomfortable, but Hyde says the process ultimately strengthened their relationship.

By putting their story on screen, the family chose openness over privacy.

“It’s taken a long time for me to be completely open about my family,” Hyde says in Australian Story. “But the more you make something secret, the more shame it carries.”

With Jimpa, Hyde says she wanted to do the opposite: to show a queer family not defined by secrecy, but by care, complexity, and the willingness to live honestly.

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