Saccharine(2026)

The vengeful spirit of "Big Bertha" — the obese cadaver whose ashes fuel the diet pills — manifests as a Buddhist "hungry ghost" that Hana can only perceive in curved reflective surfaces, chiefly spoons, turning everyday utensils into portals of body-image distortion.

Principal photography took place at Docklands Studios Melbourne, La Trobe University's Brunswick campus, and the coastal suburb of Beaumaris, wrapping in December 2024 after a location-heavy Australian shoot.

The film opens with a close-up of a jelly donut being eaten, then spins the footage backwards so the bloody filling appears to suck back into the pastry — a deliberately disorienting visual metaphor for binge-and-purge cycles that James designed to place viewers inside the subjective experience of disordered eating.