During her second pregnancy, Farmiga made her directorial debut with the micro-budget, Christian-themed drama "Higher Ground", in which she starred as the protagonist, Corinne Walker. The film received "generally favorable reviews" on review aggregator site Metacritic and premiered at the 2011 Sundance. Many of her family members were involved in the production: Farmiga's sister Taissa portrayed Corinne as a teenager, her husband Renn Hawkey served as a producer and musical director, and her cousin Adriana Farmiga served as an art curator. She received nominations in both acting and directing for the film, including the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director, and the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture. In his film review, critic Kirk Honeycutt of "The Hollywood Reporter" noted: "Directing debuts by actors don't come any better than this". Of her performance, Leonard Maltin of IndieWire remarked that Farmiga "gives an honest, empathetic performance should come as no surprise; she is one of the most gifted and daring actresses of our time".