How to be Held
Director
CHRISTINE NYLAND
Producers
GILLIAN COOPER
CAILLA O'SHEA
Type
Scripted Feature
Status
Pre-Production
Alexis is the sort of person you’d like to like—if she didn’t seem so hell-bent on keeping everyone at arm’s length. Working in a bougie mattress shop, living with her sister, Alma, to whom she barely speaks, and using casual sex to avoid intimacy, she’s sleepwalking through her life. She’d never be able to say it, but she’s lonely as hell. When Alma spirals after a near run-in with her abusive ex-husband, Alexis reaches her breaking point. Desperate for some kind of change, she responds to an ad on a dating app: SEEKING CUDDLE PARTNER, STRICTLY PLATONIC 100/HR. She begins seeing clients, keeping this second life a secret from her sister—and from Ben, the guy she’s been seeing more and more of. These small, intimate interactions begin to change her, pushing at the edges of the world she’s built for herself, and threatening the person she thought she was.
Christine Nyland is a New York based filmmaker best known for her work on Shudder Original, An Unquiet Grave. She also co-wrote, produced and starred in indie features Distress Signals (Dark Sky Media) and Summoners (Nightstream). As a director, she created Wrinkles & Sprinkles: The Animated Series for Means TV, and the short films Implied Monsters and Strictly Platonic, her first exploration of professional cuddling, shot on 16mm. She has also produced and directed numerous videos for The Shubert Organization and The Broadway Collection. How to be Held will be her directorial feature debut.
Gillian Cooper is an Austin, Texas-based producer, actor, and writer. A graduate of the University of Southern California, she also holds a degree in Writing for Film, TV, and Games from the Vancouver Film School. She executive-produced the upcoming independent pilot TOO ROMANTIC with Madhouse Films (Forbidden Fruits, Long Pork), written and directed by Talia Light Rake of Heavy Shovel Productions. She also produced and executive-produced RECLUSE, the directorial debut of Henry Chaisson (Antlers, Servant), set to premiere this spring. As an actress, she has extensive training from the Atlantic Acting School through NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, several schools around the LA and Austin area, and she currently studies under the mentorship of John Markland at The Markland Studio (LA). The short film ACHIEVER, directed by Charlie Treisman and in which she has a supporting role, premiered at SXSW 2026.
Cailla O'Shea is a New York City-based producer dedicated to championing emerging voices in independent cinema. Leveraging a background in leading global programs for the tech sector, she brings a sophisticated operational framework to the filmmaking process - balancing high-level backend strategy with a deep, filmmaker-first sensibility. Cailla is currently in production on the upcoming feature THESE WOODS ARE LOVELY and served as an Executive Producer on the thriller RECLUSE, both directed by Henry Chaisson and slated for 2026 releases.