Winner is based on the true story of Reality Winner. She is a veteran of six years in the Air Force, where she worked translating Arabic, Dari, and Pashto. After her stint in the Air Force, she went to work for the NSA. While at the NSA she leaked some documents about Russian interference in the 2016 election. She ended up in prison for about 5 years.

Winner is not the first production about this story. There was a documentary in 2021 called Reality Winner. There was a 2023 film called Reality, which takes place in one room in one day and is a word for word enactment of Reality’s interrogation after her arrest.

Kerry Howley wrote the article “Who is Reality Winner” which became the basis for this film, Winner, released in 2024. Kerry Howley co-wrote the film based on her article with the director Susanna Fogel.

I really wasn’t aware of the story of Reality Winner until I saw Winner. Now I’ve done all sorts of studying up on her story and plan to watch the other films I mentioned above.

What sets this film apart from the rest? This one is family-based and tells her life story. Emilia Jones plays Reality as an adult. Her parents Billie (Connie Britton) and Ron (Zach Galifianakis) and her sister Brittany (Kathryn Newton as an adult) all play a huge part in the story.

Reality was an odd kid. After watching 9/11 unfold on TV when she was about 9 years old, she decided to learn to speak Pashto and began to study it. She was smart and independent minded. She didn’t date until she was an adult when she lived with a bartender named Andre (Danny Ramirez) for several years.

Her aim and purpose as she described it was to go to Pakistan and/or Afghanistan to help the people there. She thought speaking the language would help her.

While working as a translator at the NSA, she opened a file on Russia (which she wasn’t supposed to be working in) and saw information showing that the federal government knew the Russians were interfering in the 2016 election. She thought people deserved to know the government was lying to them and leaked the document to the media.

Her efforts to inform the public got her arrested. She plead guilty and was sent to prison. Her sentence was longer than that of any other whistleblower. She’s free now, and was released early because of good behavior.

Although her crime was about a political scandal, people have criticized this particular version of her story because it does get into politics. I haven’t seen the other two films I mentioned, but I don’t see how you could tell this story without politics being involved.

Emilia Jones is such a versatile actor. She gave her character a kind of brash standoffish charisma and fearlessness that made the character come alive. It made me want to know more about her.

The film is streaming on Hulu or can be rented from streamers like YouTube, Apple TV+, Prime Video, and Google Play.