Finding Emily

23-year-old Owen works as a sound engineer at a student union bar at the fictional Manchester City University. One night he meets a girl and finds himself falling in love with her. Abruptly, the girl leaves, giving him her first name, "Emily", and her phone number. The next morning, Owen tries to text Emily, only to find that she mistyped her number. Mocked by his older brother, Owen sets about finding Emily.

Meanwhile, third-year psychology student Emily Raine - a different Emily to the one Owen met - is under pressure to finish her thesis, a good mark on which will grant her a prestigious job in Manchester. Her hypothesis is that love is a kind of madness and a vestigial evolutionary impulse. When Owen comes to her class seeking Emily, she decides he is the perfect case study to base her thesis around.

Despite ethical concerns from her professor and flatmates, Emily befriends Owen under the pretense of helping him find Emily, leading to a series of misadventures. Owen anonymously emails every girl named Emily registered at the university on Emily Raine's suggestion, leading to controversy. Student Union President Emily Thewlis, an outspoken feminist, begins a campaign against the anonymous emailer, known as "Email Guy", leading Owen to go on a podcast to speak about his quest to find Emily. He performs a song he wrote for the missing Emily, which unexpectedly goes viral. After sneaking into a party of the more than three hundred Emilies that Owen emailed, he is discovered by Emily Thewlis, who threatens to call the police, and the Emilies chase him away. He flees with Emily Raine in tow. Shortly after this incident, Owen, now considered a danger to the student body, loses his job.

Emily Raine and Owen begin to become closer and Owen takes her to a show, and they begin to fall in love. However, some weeks later, Owen is contacted by the Emily he met - whose name is actually "Amelie". He goes to a bar with her and they chat, but their conversation is interrupted by people who recognise him as the viral "Email Guy". Realising their relationship will never work with the newfound scrutiny Owen has brought upon them both, Amelie and Owen part ways.

Meanwhile, Emily submits her project with hours to spare and attends a leavers' ball. She tries to admit she is fine without Owen. She breaks things off with her on-again off-again partner Tristan and runs off to meet Owen, only to see him speaking with Amelie. She returns to her flat later, only to find Owen there, who discovers the notes for her final degree project. Disgusted and heartbroken, Owen walks out on her.

Emily sinks into a depression after losing Owen, but gets a good mark on her thesis. She goes on the same podcast that Owen went on to admit she was behind Owen's strange antics. She uses her final presentation on the thesis to apologise to Owen, who walks out. Abandoning her presentation, Emily runs out to apologise to him face-to-face, which Owen finally accepts. The two share a kiss, confirming their feelings for each other.

The film is directed by Alicia MacDonald, written by Rachel Hirons, and produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title Films. Olivier Kaempfer produced for Parkville. Focus Features has worldwide distribution rights.^[4]

The cast is led by Angourie Rice and Spike Fearn and also includes Ella Maisy Purvis, Minnie Driver and Cora Kirk.^[5][6][7] Principal photography took place in Manchester between August and September 2024.^[8][9]

Finding Emily was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 22 May 2026, and is scheduled for release in the United States on 28 August.^[10][11]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 28 critics' reviews are positive.^[12]

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[13]