Eva María Daniels Dies: Producer Of ‘Joe Bell,’ ‘What Maisie Knew’ & EP Of HBO’s ‘Reality’ Was 43

Eva María Daniels, producer on the 2020 Mark Wahlberg-starrer Joe Bell and EP on the recent Sydney Sweeney vehicle Reality from HBO, has died. The news was announced by friend, filmmaker and fellow Icelander Börkur Sigthorsson. She was 43.

Daniels focused on developing original content with socially relevant themes, launching her Eva Daniels Productions in New York in 2010.

The most recent films she was involved with include Reality, which premiered at Berlinale in 2023; Joe Bell, which premiered at TIFF in 2020 and received a wide theatrical release by Roadside Attractions; and Hold the Dark in 2018, starring Jeffrey Wright.

In a Facebook tribute, Sigthorsson recalled how early on Daniels found a way to help Icelandic filmmakers by bundling their needs for film stock to procure a better price.

“This became her style,” he wrote. “She developed relationships with international filmmakers, offered opportunities for those whose talent she recognized but often lacked the means… and became an enabler and supporter of countless filmmakers who went on to become hugely successful.”

Reality is an adaptation of Broadway’s Is This A Room from playwright Tina Satter, who also directed the film.

Producer Riva Marker, who worked with Daniels on Reality, Joe Bell, What Maisie Knew, Goat and The Romantics, said, “I had the honor of collaborating with my friend Eva on five films. We were introduced in 2007 by Ellen Kira’s when Eva was running Company 3 in New York City. Eva was hyper-intelligent and had a gift for seeking out and supporting artists. She collected friends, and art, in every country she lived in. She imbued her friends and colleagues with confidence to trust their creative ambitions., Our most recent collaboration, the film Reality starring Sydney Sweeney, was an incredible success and her passing is a devastating loss to the industry. My friend Eva was kind and formidable and fun. She was an integral producer on all our collaborations and I’ll miss her dearly.”