Butler County native Celine Held, left, holds child actress Zhaila Farmer in a scene from “Topside,” the movie Held acted in as well as co-wrote and co-directed with her husband, Logan George. “Topside” was selected to premiere at the upcoming Venice International Film Festival.

A movie a former Butler County woman co-wrote and co-directed will have its premiere in September at Venice Critics’ Week alongside the Venice International Film Festival.

Celine Held, formerly of Penn Township, also acted in “Topside,” the first feature-length film she and her husband, Logan George, have made.

“It’s about a 5-year-old girl and her mother who are in a community that lives in an abandoned subway tunnel in New York City,” said Held. “We filmed in New York City and the tunnel scenes in Rochester, N.Y.”

“Topside” will be shown in the festival’s 35th edition of the Critics’ Week competition, along with six other movies, as the only selection from the United States.

Held, who also plays the role of the mother in the film, said “Topside” is the first American film selected for Critics’ Week in 13 years.

“Our producer submitted it. It was a long shot but we got super lucky,” she said.

The Venice film festival will run from Sept. 2 to the 12.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Thursday’s Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print.