Gertrude Ederle Biopic ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ Set for May Release (Trailer)

Photo Courtesy: Disney

Gertrude Ederle Biopic ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ Set for May Release (Trailer)

Young Woman and the Sea, a Gertrude Ederle biopic of the first woman to swim the English Channel, is set for a May release date, with the trailer revealed this week.

It will star Daisy Ridley and be given a theatrical release by Disney.

The film is based on the 2009 book of the same name written by Glenn Stout. It’s gone through a long development process that started nearly a decade ago, eventually finding its way to Disney and, reportedly thanks to positive reviews in screenings, to a limited theatrical rather than merely streaming release.

The movie also features Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston and Glenn Fleshler. It’s written by Jeff Nathanson and directed by Joachim Ronning, with Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer.

Ederle, who died in 2003 at age 98, was born in New York as the daughter of a German-born butcher. She swam at the groundbreaking Women’s Swimming Association in New York and won three medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics, with bronze in the 100 free and 400 free and gold in the 400 free relay. She attempted a crossing of the English Channel in 1925, when WSA teammate and fellow Olympian Helen Wainwright was injured, and successfully became the first woman to cross the channel in 1926. She was just the sixth person to swim the channel, her record time holding until 1950.

This is the latest in swimming cinema, following on the heels of the lauded Nyad, which told the story of open water swimmer Diana Nyad, in 2023 and the Netflix film, The Swimmers.

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