When Cole Webley discovered filmmaker and screenwriter Robert Machoian also lived in Utah, he was determined to find him.

“When I found (Machoian), I was sitting in an audience, and I’d watched a film called ‘The Killing of Two Lovers,’” Webley told a Sundance audience at the Thursday premiere of “Omaha.”

Impressed with “The Killers of Two Lovers” — which Machoian wrote and directed — Webley said, “That guy (Machoian) lives in Utah too? How do I not know him?”

“I sought him out. I found him ... and I grabbed him by the lapel, and I threw him up against the wall, and I said, ‘Do you have any other scripts?’” Webley joked.

Machoian presented Webley with his script for “Omaha.” From the moment he finished reading it, Webley took it “full throttle” and decided to make the film as his directorial debut.

“I knew this was a special story that had to be told,” he said.

Cole Webley speaks during a Q&A following the premiere of “Omaha” during the Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

Webley hired Preston Lee on as the film’s producer and shared the script with Paul Meyers, whom he intended to make lead cinematographer.

Meyers, for his part, had a similar experience with the script.

“I felt compelled to be a part of the project the moment I read the script,” Meyers told the Deseret News. “I was really touched. ... I felt like this was something I (had) to make.”

Meyers immediately called Webley and committed to the project.

“Let’s do it. I’m all in, whatever it takes,” he recalled telling him. “And that was the beginning of quite the adventure.”

Robert Machoian, right, hugs Paul Meyers at the premiere of “Omaha” during the Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

Of more than 4,130 feature-length films submitted for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival program, just 86 survived the festival’s highly-selective slashing process.

“Omaha” is the only film featured in the lineup with Utah ties — and those ties run deep.

Both Webley and Meyers are BYU graduates, and Machoian is a BYU professor. All three live in Utah.

The majority of the film was shot in Utah, and most of the crew are local.

Preston Lee attends the premiere of “Omaha” during the Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

When Meyers learned “Omaha” had been selected to premiere at the festival, “it was just absolute elation,” he said, adding, “We feel like we won the lottery.”

Premiering “Omaha” at the Sundance Film Festival is “a huge honor,” Webley said.

“We feel super grateful to have the opportunity to premiere a film there, to be able to find an audience there ... It is really just the greatest compliment that we could receive.”

“Omaha” actors and crew attend the premiere of “Omaha” during the Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

‘Utah was really important to the story’

The majority of “Omaha” was shot in Utah. Of the nearly six weeks taken to film, roughly four were spent in Utah.

“We shot in Utah for a lot of reasons,” Meyers said. Landscape, a micro-budget and a local film crew were a few.

“Omaha” follows a recently widowed father (John Magaro), who takes his two children (Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis) on a road trip from Hawthorne, Nevada, to Omaha, Nebraska, in a last-ditch effort to rebuild their lives.

Utah’s varied terrain served as the perfect backdrop for the family’s multistate trip across the I-80 East.

“Utah was really important to the story, to get that sense of the landscape changing, and getting a taste of the American West,” Meyers said. “(A) big part of the story takes place in Utah, we needed those landscapes.”

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He continued, “The textures here, the people, this landscape is amazing — set up against those jagged those rocks (and) these steep cliffs and rocks in the background. ... The state of Utah was an amazing place to shoot.”

Wyatt Solis attends the premiere of “Omaha” during the Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

Meyers and Webley made good use of Utah’s diverse landscape, covering a broad range of territory to create the feel of an expansive cross-country road trip.

They shot scenes in Helper, Tooele, Salt Lake City, Eureka, Stockton, Ogden, the Salt Flats and more. To round out the film, scenes were also shot in Wyoming and Nebraska.

Wyatt Solis, bottom left, attends a Q&A following the premiere of “Omaha” during the Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News

“To get to come to Utah and say, you know, this is where we’re going to place this movie was such a joy,” Meyers said. “And to be able to see it again through new eyes of this script as a cinematographer, was a real pleasure.”

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