Summer Film Festival 2025 - Lilly
- Matt Palmer
- Jul 22, 2025
- 3 min read
Before I get into my thoughts of the Film “Lilly,” I wanted to tell you a little about the subject of this film.
Lilly Ledbetter was an American activist who was the plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case Ledbetter v Goodyear Tires Rubber Co., regarding employment discrimination. Two years after the Supreme Court decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t allow employers to be sued for pay discrimination more than 180 days after an employee’s first paycheck, the US Congress passed a fair pay act in her name to remedy this issue, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
Subsequently, she became a women’s equality activist, public speaker, and author. In 2011, Ledbetter was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
When a hard-working Alabama factory supervisor discovers that for nearly two decades she;s been earning only half of what men with the same job are paid - only because she’s a woman - she begins a long journey to fight for justice.
“Lilly” is a very compelling and gripping drama that dives into Lilly Ledbetter’s crusade for equal pay for women and the setbacks that occurred throughout before finally getting to the Supreme Court and eventually going into law.
This gripping film festival selection is one of those films that will leave you moved to tears during quite a few scenes. During the first half of the film, we see how Lilly does all she can to stand up for herself while facing discrimination at the factory. We also see how Lilly wouldn’t go down without a fight.
This important film also focuses on Lilly and her husband’s story throughout her incredible journey. Towards the beginning, its shown how Charles (her husband) initially expresses anger when Lilly takes her job, yet he quickly becomes more supportive of her efforts. His support for her grows even more as her workplace challenges begin and their subplot is one of the more emotional highlights of the film.
“Lilly” also focuses on several themes, including gender pay equality and the challenges faced by women in male-dominated workplaces. The film also goes into the personal and psychological costs of Lilly Ledbetter’s long and arduous struggle against discrimination and harassment, emphasizing her resilience. The film also adds in some archival footage of Ledbetter and the Supreme Court proceedings, which is a real nice touch.
Cast: Patricia Clarkson (Lilly Ledbetter); Deidre Lovejoy (Jocelyn Samuels); Joshua Mikel (Luke Urskee); Thomas Sadoski (Jon Goldfarb); Josh McDermitt (Dan McGinty); Ned Vaughn (Mike Quinn); John Benjamin Hickey (Charles Ledbetter).
Writer/director: Rachel Feldman (co-writer/director) and Adam Prince (co-writer).
Trivia: In February 2013, it was announced that Rachel Feldman would direct a film revolving around Lucy Ledbetter. Feldman connected with Ledbetter through her lawyer Jon Goldfarb. The project struggled to get off the ground for years.
In February 2020, it was announced that Meryl Streep would back the film. She was initially offered the Ledbetter role, yet she declined the role and still wanted to help get the film moving. “Lilly” had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 10, 2024. Lilly Ledbetter died two days later, at the age of 86.
MPA: Rated PG-13 for thematic material, sexual assault and some language (runtime 93 minutes)
The remaining show dates and times for “Lilly” during the Summer Film Festival are as follows: Saturday July 26 (7:00); Tuesday July 29 (12:00).
In 1979, Lilly Ledbetter (April 14, 1938-October 12, 2024) was hired at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant in Gadsden, Alabama. After nineteen years, she received an anonymous note informing her that she was receiving significantly lower pay than many male employees with comparable or less expertise and seniority. Ledbetter's sex discrimination suit against Goodyear was initially successful but her win was reversed on appeal, including at the Supreme Court. A majority of justices claimed that she would have needed to have filed her lawsuit within 180 days of her very first unequal paycheck--many years earlier--even though she had no way of knowing that her pay was unequal for most of that time. However, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a scathing dissent that (in a break from usual Supreme Court proceedings) she read aloud from the bench, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 became the first official piece of legislation passed during Barack Obama's presidency.
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