{"id":42809,"date":"2026-08-24T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/?p=42809"},"modified":"2026-08-23T23:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:15:55","slug":"btl-radio-show-08-24-2026-with-director-alicia-macdonald-talking-finding-emily-and-w-d-casper-kelly-talking-all-things-buddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/miscellaneous\/behind-the-lens-podcast\/btl-radio-show-08-24-2026-with-director-alicia-macdonald-talking-finding-emily-and-w-d-casper-kelly-talking-all-things-buddy\/","title":{"rendered":"BTL Radio Show – 08\/24\/2026 with director ALICIA MacDONALD talking FINDING EMILY and w\/d CASPER KELLY talking all things BUDDY"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s a fun show this week on BEHIND THE LENS thanks to director ALICIA MacDONALD talking about her new film opening on Friday, FINDING EMILY, and writer\/director CASPER KELLY discussing his new film BUDDY, which also opens in theatres this Friday!<\/p>\n

First up, we\u2019re going to Manchester, England with FINDING EMILY.<\/p>\n

Directed by Alicia MacDonald and written by Rachel Hirons, FINDING EMILY is the story of a lovesick musician named Owen who is given the wrong number for his dream girl, \u201cEmily\u201d, which leads him to team up with a driven psychology student from the United States, Emily Raine, to find her. Together, they spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way. Side note for all of you – there are 40,000 students at the University. 318 are named Emily… plus some non-students also named Emily. And Owen\u2019s ideas for finding \u201cthe right Emily\u201d bring on all sorts of hilarity and heart.<\/p>\n

Set in Manchester, England, and celebrating all things Manchester from locations to shops to music, FINDING EMILY stars Angourie Rice and Spike Fearn as Emily Raine and Owen, respectively,\u00a0 (perfectly cast pairing, I might add) and Minnie Driver and the hard-nosed Dean Emily Watkinson.<\/p>\n

FINDING EMILY is truly a revival of the British romantic comedy, and it is firing on all cylinders with a youthful energy while tackling themes of how to be romantic in today\u2019s world, dealing with emotional messiness, starting fresh as you move into the next chapter of your life aka adulting.<\/p>\n

Alicia\u2019s feature directorial debut, this is a crafts-heavy film that fully creates and immerses us in this collegiate world while embracing Manchester and the UK, and celebrating the individual Emilys we meet along the way. As Alicia explains in this exclusive interview, the primary goal for FINDING EMILY was to create an authentic, honest romantic comedy with an “indie soul” rather than a glossy studio feel. And she succeeds thanks to Rachel Clark\u2019s cinematography and visual grammar with resulting visual tonal bandwidth, Bobbie Cousins production design and color scheme, Sarah Hassan\u2019s costuming which informs and defines characters, incredible editing by Phil Hignett in finding the funny and balancing comedic beats with serious emotion while developing perfect pacing that has a cadence that fits the film\u2019s score by Morgan Kibby and plethora of fantastic needledrops from Manchester bands. By film\u2019s end, you\u2019ll feel like you\u2019re in college and actually fitting in with the Gen-Z crowd!<\/p>\n

Alicia and I cover it all!<\/p>\n

FINDING EMILY is exclusively in theatres on August 28th!\u00a0 \u00a0And don’t forget, the soundtrack for FINDING EMILY is available on vinyl!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n