Avatar: The Last Airbender Breakout Elizabeth Yu Ignites New Year One Trailer as Release Date Revealed
Here's an exclusive trailer for Year One, a raw coming-of-age drama led by Avatar: The Last Airbender star Elizabeth Yu as a freshman fighting to find her footing. Freestyle Digital Media has picked up distribution and set the release date.
Freshman year rarely goes the way you plan it, and this one goes off the rails in some unsettling, very relatable ways. Freestyle Digital Media has picked up Year One, a grounded coming-of-age drama led by Elizabeth Yu (Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender), and an exclusive trailer just premiered via ComingSoon.
What the movie is actually about
Yu plays Ruby, a college freshman who cannot quite click with campus life. The only person she connects with is her roommate, Selene, and even that gets complicated fast. Selene is dealing with severe anxiety and struggles to take care of herself, which slowly drags Ruby into caretaker mode. The longer Ruby tries to hold everything together, the more she starts to unravel: intrusive dreams creep in, and a slick, glamorous version of herself shows up in her head and starts living the picture-perfect college life Ruby thinks she is supposed to have. That split between expectation and reality is the movie's engine.
Quick facts
- Release: Available November 4, 2025 in North America on digital HD platforms, cable/satellite on-demand, and DVD.
- Distributor: Freestyle Digital Media.
- Cast: Elizabeth Yu as Ruby; Emma Raimi as Selene; Maya Schnake as Margot; Taylor Kinkead as Becca; Billy Chengary as Sam; Tatsumi Romano as Brianna; Ryder McDaniel as Garth.
- Filmmakers: Written and directed by Lauren Loesberg, who also serves as an executive producer; produced by Imani Davis, Dasha Gordon, and Julia Relova.
- Festival stop: Premiered in competition at the 2024 Bentonville Film Festival.
Why this one might hit a nerve
This is Loesberg's feature debut, and it is pulling from personal experience. The mental-health angle is front and center, not as an after-school special but as the messy, everyday pressure cooker that first-year college can be. Loesberg puts it plainly:
"Year One is a deeply personal story inspired by my own experience with mental health in college. While I was struggling alone at the time, it quickly became clear how common and prevalent it is among young adults, especially within our American university culture. I hope that this film can change the conversation around mental health, destigmatize seeking help, and serve as a reminder that sometimes in order to help others, you need to put yourself first."
If the trailer is any indication, expect something intimate and slightly surreal rather than a big glossy campus comedy. Mark your calendar for November 4, 2025 if this is your lane.