WEEK IN WOMEN: Alicia MacDonald’s FINDING EMILY in U.S. Theatres via Focus Features – Brandy McDonnell reports
British filmmaker Alicia MacDonald’s first feature, Finding Emily, comes to U.S. theaters on Aug. 28 via Focus Features. The romantic comedy follows a lovesick musician who is given the wrong number for his dream girl, so he teams up with a driven psychology student to find her. Together, they spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way.
The award-winning MacDonald already has created an impressive body of work that spans film, television, commercials and short films. She has worked with global leading brands such as McDonald’s, Walkers, Toyota, Jaguar, Google and more. Her airline safety film for TUI – Safety: A Global Film – gained industry recognition at the British Arrows advertising awards and was listed in Campaign’s Top 5 Ads of the Year. Her work has also been recognized by Kinsale Sharks and her short films Bad News and Domestic Policy won gold at the Young Director Awards and played in the New Creators’ Showcase at Cannes Lions, respectively.
Recently, MacDonald directed an episode and co-executive produced Lena Dunham’s acclaimed series “Too Much,” starring Will Sharpe, Meg Stalter, Andrew Scott and Naomi Watts, for Netflix. She also directed episodes of Amazon Prime’s British comedy crime-thriller The Outlaws, starring Stephen Merchant, Christopher Walken and Jessica Gunning.
Her feature film directorial debut, which was originally titled CC: Emily, is from Working Title Films, which is known for hit movies like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill.
Finding Emily is produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title and Olivier Kaempfer for Parkville Pictures. The film is written by Rachel Hirons (A Guide to Second Date Sex, Powder Room, Kiss Me First).
The rom-com stars Angourie Rice (Spider-Man: Far from Home, The Last Thing He Told Me, the 2024 movie-musical Mean Girls), Spike Fearn Alien: Romulus, Ella McCay,”Aftersun) and Oscar nominee Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting, Speechless, Emily in Paris). ConTinue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMEN.
