Sold out crowd at Empire Theatre takes in local production | InQuinte.ca
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Sold out crowd at Empire Theatre takes in local production

By Brock Ormond Dec 19, 2025 | 4:18 PM
The first-ever feature film of a Belleville-based production company produced great returns on Thursday night.
8020 Studio premiered Butter Bandits to a sold-out crowd at the Empire Theatre, a movie fully shot in the Bay of Quinte with an all-local cast and primarily local crew.
The film is based on a true story of a butter heist in southern Ontario in 2021.
Victor Cooper, co-owner of 80/20 Studio, who already has a multi-season TV show to his name, Stoney Lonesome, which was featured on Bell Fibe and also produced locally, directed the film and co-wrote it with his wife Jodi.
Cooper, and 8020 co-owner Kelly McKinney, who also stars in the project, procured funding from local investors to fund the film and bring it to life.
“We were so overwhelmed by the amount of support from this community, not just tonight, but since we started pre-production back in October,” Cooper stated.
“They’ve had our backs every step of the way.” One of Butter Bandits’ lead actors, Allisha Pelletier, who has had roles on projects featured on OUTTV and Amazon Prime, even moved to the region as a result of filming.
In terms of next steps for Butter Bandits and 8020 Studio, Cooper says there are multiple plans. “We’ll be taking it to some festivals to get it in front of more audiences and in front of some production companies. TIFF has a marketplace coming up that we’re excited about and we’ll also be taking pitch meetings with distributors.”
For more information, visit https://www.eightytwentystudio.com/