Finding Emily Brings Manchester Romance to US Screens This Week
A romantic comedy set among the student haunts of Manchester lands in US cinemas on 28 August 2026, two days from now, with Focus Features handling domestic distribution — domestic meaning the United States and Canada. The film has already played UK screens since its release there on 22 May 2026, according to Focus Features.
Finding Emily comes from Working Title Films, the London-based production house run by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, whose credits stretch from Four Weddings and a Funeral to Darkest Hour. Alicia MacDonald makes her feature directorial debut on the project, working from a screenplay by Rachel Hirons. Rachel Clark served as director of photography. Variety published its review on 26 August 2026, offering the first critical read on the finished film (Variety).
The plot turns on a case of mistaken identity. Owen Brompton, a sound technician at a student union club in Manchester, sets out to find a girl named Emily — and instead crosses paths with Emily Raine, an American psychology student who is, inconveniently, a different Emily. According to the film's logline, reported by Variety when the project was first announced in September 2025, the pair "spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way."
Spike Fearn plays Owen, described as a gentle but dim aspiring musician. Angourie Rice, the Australian actor whose credits include Spider-Man: No Way Home and Mean Girls (2024), plays Emily Raine. Sadie Soverall rounds out the principal cast, appearing as a cheery girl in glittery fairy wings. The soundtrack leans into Manchester's musical heritage with songs by Joy Division, the post-punk band whose shadow still hangs over the city.
Production wrapped in Victoria, Australia, according to Variety Australia, a common substitute location for British-set films. Rice spoke to Variety in May 2026 about the pressures of building a career in Hollywood, framing Finding Emily as part of a deliberate run of lead roles.
The film carries a PG-13 rating in the US, per Rotten Tomatoes. Working Title produced; Focus Features distributes in the US. A UK distributor has not been separately identified in the available materials.
For audiences who track the romantic-comedy pipeline, Finding Emily sits in a corridor that Working Title has worked for three decades — British settings, rising leads, a soundtrack that doubles as a sense of place. Whether it holds will be a question for the weekend grosses.
