Shaffer starred as Kyle Timmons, a teen wrestler from a broken home, struggling to escape issues with his mother. He comes to a New Jersey town where Mike Flaherty (played by Paul Giamatti) is fighting to make ends meet as an attorney and a high school wrestling coach. Timmons is looking to live with his grandfather who was moved to a nursing home, but ends up staying with the Flaherty family. Timmons’ turns the Flaherty household upside down, and they find that the bonds of family go beyond blood relations.

Much of the story was inspired by McCarthy and Tiboni’s own experiences. Tiboni is an elder care attorney and has two daughters, as did Flaherty in “Win Win”. They both wrestled together when they were younger. “Tom’s very collaborative, it’s a great way to work,” said Skalski at the question and answer session after the movie. She compared him to a tailor, fine tuning the script to fit the actors as it was filmed.

“Win Win” was Shaffer’s first experience with acting. The casting of Kyle Timmons was based more on wrestling talent than acting experience. Shaffer got the part the same week he won the New Jersey State Wrestling Championships. “He was just really able to focus, and really able to listen Tom in the moment,” said Skalski. She said added that Shaffer would like to continue acting in the future.

Ann Arbor was chosen for the festival due to it’s support of independent films and the arts in general. “We really wanted to choose cities with the right film culture,” said Cooper. This is not the first time the Sundance Film Festival has come to the Michigan Theater. Gail and Steve Caird volunteered to help at last year’s after party, but didn’t get to see the Sundance film. This year, they came for the movie, and were impressed by the Michigan Theater’s friendly environment. “Plus, it’s really exciting…it’s special, it’s like we got to see it first…I like that, and I like the energy, cause everybody’s really excited.” said Gail. “But I think it’s fun, too, to see a movie when it’s full…when everybody’s laughing, and it’s this big, huge film, that’s how it used to always be. In the days before movies on TV, and video recorders.”

Barbara and Michael Steer also attended the premiere. “It was believable, and I liked all the characters. And it surprised me. I

didn’t know how it was gonna end,” said Barbara. Michael agreed, and had positive thoughts about the theater itself. “I love being up in the balcony. You don’t usually get to sit in the balcony, so I think you get a great view, and the sound is better up there than a lot of [seats in the house],” said Michael.

Overall, the film was a success. With a beautiful and welcoming theater, a well done and inspiring movie, the cheers went on and on.  Skalski hoped that viewers will remember the movie’s theme: when you cut corners in life, sometimes you’ll get away with it and sometimes you won’t, but either way it will affect you.