Where was Finding Emily Filmed?

“Finding Emily” turns a missing phone-number digit into an excuse to explore Manchester almost street by street. Spike Fearn plays Owen, a musician and university sound technician who meets a girl named Emily during a night out and believes he has found someone special. The problem arrives the next morning, when he realizes the number she entered into his phone is incomplete. His increasingly elaborate attempt to locate her brings him together with Emily Raine, an American psychology student played by Angourie Rice, who agrees to help while quietly treating Owen as research for her thesis on romantic obsession.

Director Alicia MacDonald did not ask another British city to impersonate Manchester. “Finding Emily” was filmed extensively across the real city, including the University of Manchester, Canal Street, St Peter’s Square, the Northern Quarter and several well-known pubs and cafes. Controlled interiors were completed at Space Studios Manchester. Focus Features announced the start of principal photography on August 27, 2024, when the project was still known as “CC: Emily.”

University of Manchester

The fictional Manchester City University is largely built from the University of Manchester’s real campus. Condé Nast Traveller reports that a majority of the location filming took place around the university, which explains why the campus feels unusually coherent rather than being assembled from several unrelated institutions.

One of the most important locations is the University of Manchester Students’ Union on Oxford Road. Owen works around the student-union environment, and several of the early events that send his search spiraling across campus are staged there. Screen Manchester also confirms the use of the Sackville Building on Sackville Street and Alan Gilbert Square, giving the fictional university a mixture of historic academic architecture and busy student spaces.

Manchester Central Library was another location secured through Screen Manchester. Although it is not part of the university campus, its grand interior and central position allow the film to extend its academic world into the wider city without losing that student atmosphere.

Space Studios Manchester

Not every room seen in “Finding Emily” is a real student flat. Some of the movie’s important interiors were created at Space Studios Manchester, which also served as the production’s unit base and housed its offices.

The studio has confirmed that Stage 06 was used to construct Emily’s bedroom. The film’s podcast studio was also built at Space, while Owen’s bedroom was created by transforming one of the studio’s dressing rooms. These controlled sets allowed MacDonald and cinematographer Rachel Clark to handle scenes requiring longer dialogue, repeatable lighting and more camera flexibility than a real student bedroom might permit.

That mix of real Manchester and limited studio work is important. The movie rarely feels sealed inside a soundstage because the characters spend so much time walking, cycling and searching through recognizable parts of the city.

Canal Street and the Gay Village

Owen’s search eventually leaves campus and turns Manchester itself into part of the comedy. Canal Street and the Gay Village feature prominently, with MacDonald filming in and around several real nightlife venues.

Both Via on Canal Street and G-A-Y appear during the nightlife material. Contemporary reports from the 2024 shoot also spotted crews moving along Canal Street while production was underway. In the finished film, Owen can be seen cycling through the area, giving the sequence an unmistakably Manchester identity rather than a generic nightclub backdrop.

It is a good choice for a story about a search becoming increasingly public. The Village is busy, colorful and filled with people who can become part of Owen’s growing campus legend almost by accident.

Peveril of the Peak and St Peter’s Square

The distinctive Peveril of the Peak pub is another confirmed filming location. The green and yellow tiled building has stood out among Manchester’s changing cityscape for decades, and the movie uses that immediately recognizable exterior rather than inventing a student pub on a backlot.

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St Peter’s Square also appears, bringing Owen and Emily into one of central Manchester’s largest civic spaces. Manchester Central Library, the Midland Hotel, tram lines and surrounding offices give these sequences a considerably bigger scale than the university material.

The film also uses Sackville Street, connecting the campus search with the city center. The decision to keep moving through recognizable places makes Owen’s hunt for Emily feel increasingly excessive, which is part of the joke. What begins as finding one missing digit eventually seems to involve half of Manchester.

Northern Quarter and Manchester Hangouts

The production used a long list of smaller Manchester businesses instead of relying only on major landmarks. Night and Day Cafe in the Northern Quarter is among the confirmed locations, an appropriate choice for a story whose male lead is an aspiring musician.

Nearby Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street also appears. Production crews were seen around the Northern Quarter during filming, including near local restaurants and music venues. Screen Manchester additionally secured access to Pot Kettle Black at Angel Gardens and Electric Shuffle on Deansgate.

The location trail continues through Z-arts on Stretford Road, Cambridge Street, Naysmith Street in Cheetham Hill, and Castlefield. The latter is particularly useful because its canals, railway arches and converted industrial buildings offer a very different side of Manchester from the university and nightlife districts.

The production even reached the Curry Mile in Rusholme, another area closely associated with student life in the city. Rather than selecting only photogenic Manchester landmarks, MacDonald repeatedly chooses places actual students might plausibly visit.

When Was Finding Emily Filmed?

Principal photography officially began in August 2024. Focus Features announced cameras were rolling on August 27, while reports continued to document filming around Manchester through late September. The movie was then still using its original title, “CC: Emily.”

That early title explains why some production records are easier to find under “CC: Emily” than “Finding Emily.” Working Title Films produced alongside Parkville Pictures, with Focus Features holding worldwide rights.

Manchester is ultimately more than scenery here. The university campus explains why there are hundreds of possible Emilys, the nightlife districts allow Owen’s quest to escape the campus, and the pubs, record shops and music venues make his personality feel tied to the city. “Finding Emily” could have turned Manchester into another anonymous British backdrop. Instead, the production makes Owen search so much of it that the city practically becomes another character.