Rashad Frett’s Sundance-winning film Ricky is taking an independent path to theaters, with a self-distributed release set for March 20, 2026.
While Blue Harbor Entertainment is assisting with the rollout in select cities, the filmmakers are retaining full ownership of the project, marking it as a true indie release. The film, co-written by Lin Que Ayoung, stars Stephan James alongside Sheryl Lee Ralph, Titus Welliver, Maliq Johnson, Imani Lewis, and an ensemble cast that includes Andrene Ward-Hammond, Sean Nelson, Parish Bradley, Stephen Wesley Green, and Karen Chilton.
Newly released after being locked up in his teens, 30-year-old Ricky navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration, and the complexity of gaining independence for the first time as an adult.
Ricky, a betrayed teenager living inside of a prison-cut adult body, attempts to integrate himself back into his Caribbean mother’s God-fearing home in Hartford, Connecticut. Ricky missed out on so many rites of passage of puberty, of learning a way with women, of smartphones, and of social media etiquette. How will he parlay his gift as a barber into gainful employment to meet his parole officer’s work requirements?
The film is produced by Pierre M. Coleman, Simon TaufiQue, Sterling Brim, Josh Peters, DC Wade, Cary Fukunaga, and Frett himself.