Finding Emily

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Finding Emily
• a review of Finding Emily completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 25 May 2026.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn), a Mancunian sound engineer, meets a girl wearing fairy wings at the student bar he works at. He is smitten with her, learns her name is Emily (Sadie Soverall), and when she has to leave with her friends, Owen chases her down and she types her number into his phone. The next day, after trying to contact her, Owen realises that she missed a digit in her phone number. Desperate to track her down, Owen goes to her university, where he meets another Emily (Angourie Rice), a psychology student who, realising Owen is the perfect case study for her dissertation, says she will help him find his ‘Fairy Emily’. However, Emily decides to document the search for ‘Fairy Emily’ without Owen knowing. To boost Owen’s waning hope, and save her own research, Emily gives Owen the emails to all 318 Emilys in the university so he can send them a message. Unfortunately, Owen messages them all in a group email, rather than BCCing, and many of them are enraged by this invasion of privacy, calling him a creep and a stalker, among other things, without even knowing who he is. Dubbed the ‘email guy’, Owen decides to come out as the person who sent the email as it has made headlines around the university. On the Livestreamed University podcast Owen confesses that he hacked the email system (though he lies to cover for Emily), and he shares a song he wrote for the ‘Fairy Emily’. His genuineness wins many over and soon, everyone is searching for his Emily, but it all gets too much and, after losing his job, Owen is distraught.

Over the course of the search, Owen and Emily become very close but one day Owen gets a text from the real, ‘fairy’ Emily and they meet up, learning her name is actually Amelie. During the date, however, Owen realises the Emily he really wants to be with, so, after saying goodbye to Amelie, he goes to Emily's apartment. There, he sees all of Emily’s research with him as the case study and, stunned at the deceit and betrayal, he storms out. In the end, will Emily’s dissertation prove the futility of romantic attachment? Or, will love and romance prevail?

Romance; University life; Drinking culture; Social media; Love; Deception; Self sabotage; Death of a parent.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• Owen pushes, shoves, and jumps on and wrestles his brother during a heated argument about selling the family home.
• Emily and Owen have an argument.
• Owen is chased out of an ‘Emily Party’ by a mob of Emilys.
• Emily gets knocked into at a pub, splitting open her lip, which bleeds.
• In a kebab shop, after seeing Emily’s bloodied lip, a drunk woman charges at Owen, accusing him of domestic abuse and hurting Emily.
• In a pub, a group of females mob Owen and Amelie (the real Emily) and the two end up running away, out of the pub.

Material that may scare or disturb children

• Nothing further noted for this age group.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Emily says she hasn’t seen her dad for over 20 years.
• Owen says that 364 days ago his mum died and that he then had an obsession with death.
• Owen’s brother says to Owen about their mum, “If she’s looking down on us now, what do you think she’d say?”

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• Owen hears the University Dean saying that his job has been terminated because he hacked the email system – but he had only been covering up for Emily. He rides away on his bike, distraught that he’d lost his job.
• Owen is seen, alone in a field, crying, because he feels he’s messed things up. Huddled over, he screams into his knees.
• Owen walks into Emily’s bedroom and sees all the research notes and photos about him. He becomes visibly very distressed and storms out, leaving Emily trying to explain.

• Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Professor Westlake drinks a can of Ben Shaws soft drink.
• TikTok
• Facebook.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• A Drag show and lots of characters in drag are seen in a night club.
• Owens actions are deemed as sexual harassment and he is referred to as a paedophile.
• References to voyeurism.
• A character says, “You’re into that soft lad”.
• A character says, “Who names a penis ‘coupons’?” in reference to Owen saying he flashed his coupons. Which he was, in fact, referring to actual coupons.
• A character says, “Bet he’s never seen a pair of tits in his life”.
• During the credits, it’s stated that Owen’s brother and his girlfriend are pregnant.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• Two girls are in the boys toilets. One is squatting over the urinal and says, “Don’t mind me, I like to pee standing up”. Owen says he sometimes likes to pee sitting down.
• Owen is seen in his bedroom without a top on.
• Owen walks in on his brother’s girlfriend straddling his brother in a chair. She gets up and does up her top.
• Emily talks to her friend while her friend is in the bath – bath bubbles conceal any nudity.
• Owen and Emily kiss.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Lots of drinking in bars and nightclubs – sometimes in excess.
• Lots of drinking of beers in pubs.
• Holding up two cocktails, Emily excitedly says to Owen that she got them free drinks.
• Champagne is drunk at a graduation party where there is a ‘champagne tower’.
• Adults smoke
• Reference to making drunk phone calls and being drunk.
• Verbal references to ‘weed’.
• Reference to cocaine and to drug dealing.
• Reference to taking a “chill pill”, “like a Xanax”.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Shit
• Twat
• Balls
• I’ve got the balls
• Pissing away
• My God!
• WTF
• Hell
• Screw
• Shut up you ding dong.
• Use of the middle finger gesture.
• Tits
• Pair of tits
• God
• Christ
• Piss
• Bloody
• Ass
• Arse
• Asshole
• Prick
• Pussy
• Stupid
• Sexy creep
• Rapist virgin
• Incel
• Pervert
• Groper
• Psycho sex pest
• A sung and only partial use of 'motherf**k'
• Emily makes an ‘asshole cake’ to apologise to her friend. Her friend sticks her finger in the ‘butthole’ and when she pulls it out, it is covered in chocolate mousse.
• Professor Westlake states, “You could go there and take a dump on the desk”.

In a nutshell

Finding Emily is a warm-hearted romcom, set in a university campus in Manchester. Featuring a stand-out performance by Australian actress, Angourie Rice, the film highlights the value of meaningful, albeit often messy, connections. The film is likely to appeal to Gen-Z and millennial audiences, as well as lovers of romcoms. Due to the coarse language and themes, it is best suited to ages 16 and up, with parental guidance for ages 13 to 15.

The main messages from this movie are that love is not necessarily logical, it can be messy and irrational but definitely worth the risk; and that being authentic and genuine can win through the falseness of a polished performance, such as how many people portray themselves on social media.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Genuineness
• Sincerity
• Hope
• Friendship
• Honesty
• Vulnerability
• Optimism.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• Emily was dishonest and forged Owen’s signature for her ethics approval. How could she have done things differently and, in real life, what would the consequences of forgery really be?
• Owen’s plight went viral on social media and he had to deal with a lot of backlash from complete strangers. This scenario is not uncommon. Has something like this ever happened to you? Or have you accidentally sent something online that you didn’t mean to? What strategies did you, or could you, use to deal with it?