Directed by Jay Duplass, starring Cooper Raiff, David Duchovny, Kaitlyn Dever, Hope Davis, Lucy Boynton, and Ariela Barer. Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, and Duplass’ brother, Mark Duplass, served as producers on the comedy-drama.
See You When I See You is a complex and emotional meditation on grief and trauma while providing laughs, centering on comedy writer Aaron Whistler (Cooper Raiff) coming to terms with PTSD after the death of his sister and best friend, Leah (Kaitlyn Dever). This film is a screen adaptation of stand-up comedian Adam Cayton-Holland’s memoir, Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir. Cayton-Holland wrote the screenplay.
The premiere was a joyous and bittersweet celebration of the production, involving many accomplished talent dnd crew who have been fixtures of the esteemed festival honoring independent cinema. All of whom are close friends, the premiere felt more like a reunion for the last installment of Sundance in Park City, Utah.
Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass, known collectively as The Duplass Brothers, premiered their second feature, The Puffy Chair, at the festival in 2006 and have showcased many of their films since. Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon premiered The Big Sick at the festival in 2017, which became one of the highest-grossing independent films of that year. And Cooper Raiff, one of the youngest filmmakers associated with the festival, premiered his second feature, Cha Cha Real Smooth, in 2022 and television show Hal & Harper in 2025. All of the listed titles and more from these filmmakers and actors mentioned have largely received critical acclaim.
Director and producer of the film, Jay Duplass, talked about what the film means to him.
“The movie is about a family that, you know, overcomes an unimaginable hardship by coming together and being present with each other and, you know, exploring the mysterious and the unknown. I feel like we’re all feel like we’re up against… Almost impossible circumstances right now, and this family is a great, you know, beacon for people who are looking for hope.”
Writer and comedian, Cayton-Holland spoke on how, as a fan of the Duplass Brothers and Jay’s solo work, he was the only director that came to mind for him to adapt the film.
“I love the Duplass Brothers, I love everything Jay’s done. I thought he would be perfect at the tone of funny, sad, you know, all of it, not just one or the other. Jay’s very good at sort of the complexity, and the messiness of life, and I thought he’d be perfect.”
Fortunately for him, Duplass was an easy get thanks to friends, Gordon and Nanjiani, with Duplass instantly agreeing to direct.
“And so I was like, ‘Do you guys know him? I don’t want to like borrow your star power but if you can reach out.’ And like Emily’s like, ‘No worries,’ she’d reached out and within two days he was on board. And so it was kind of just that like moonshot. In the dream world l’d love to have Jay Duplass direct this movie, and he did, so it’s pretty crazy,” said Cayton-Holland.
Filmmaking powerhouse couple Nanjiani and Gordon discussed how they helped fellow comedian and friend Cayton-Holland adapt his memoir to the screen, being inspired by their film, The Big Sick, and his offer was a no-brainer for them to produce.
Nanjiani said, “So we’ve known Adam a long time from doing stand-up together, maybe 15 years or something. And then he came to us, maybe three or four years ago, and said, “You guys had experience turning a true-life thing into a movie. I want to take this story and make it a movie. Would you guys sort of guide me through that process? And just seeing how passionate he was about it and how emotional the story was for him, obviously.”
Gordon interjected, “And how good of a writer he was?”
“How good of a writer he was, we just knew he was going to be really committed to making this as good as he could, and so for us it was a very easy decision,” Nanjiani explained.
Gordon said, “We knew how smart he was and how good he was at turning his… Using his intelligence to kind of convey emotion, which I think he’s really, really good at.”
Mark Duplass spoke about how he supported his brother, Jay, on this project.
“Not only felt there was a sense of responsibility to try and protect the movie on its tonal journey, you know, but I think once Jay said ‘I want to direct this.’ That was really special for me, because he had just directed The Baltimorons, his first movie he’s directed without me, and us finding this new lane together of me sort of being in this little sidecar with the goggles on and the motorcycle and supporting him and cheering him on is what’s really kind of beautiful for us. So, this is a really nice one.”
This is lead star, actor, and filmmaker Cooper Raiff’s first project that he solely acts in instead of doubling behind the scenes as a writer, director, and producer.
On what attracted him to this project, Raiff said, “So, Jay has been my like movie dad for everything that I’ve made. He’s the reason why I was able to get my first movie made because…it’s a long story, but he really was my mentor and helped me get my first movie off the ground, and every movie that I’ve made since, he’s read the script before we shot it. He’s watched edits. He’s my mentor, and so when he asked me to do this movie, I was like ‘hell yeah’.”
Raiff shared that while the film was heavy, it balanced the scales of comedy and tragedy to make a film that shows the light in the darkness.
“I think it was important for me to bring that heaviness because it’s there. And Jay’s read, he’s crafting these scenes so that they’re entertaining, but to be truthful, as the character of Aaron, it’s heavy. So each day was pretty tough,” Raiff explained.
Ariela Barer plays Camila, a hospital social worker who is in a complicated relationship with Cooper’s character, Aaron. Barer described her character, “She’s a very smart, independent, empathetic person, and their relationship kind of teaches them both a lot.”
She spoke on how special it was filming this movie despite the heaviness of the subject matter, which Duplass made sure to take extra care with his actors.
“I feel like just watching how Jay runs the set was so inspiring. He would start every day with a circle of people, just giving everyone in the crew space to say what they are feeling or anything that’s been on their mind. Especially with such a difficult movie in terms of subject matter, it created such a safe and beautiful space to start the day, and everyone became so connected,” Barer explained.
David Duchovny, who plays the patriarch of the Whistler family, stated he didn’t experience any difficulty connecting with his character. “No, I mean that’s the job really, and you know we all have experienced loss no matter… It’s not as dramatic as what Robert goes through in the movie, but we can all relate, you know, and that’s the actor’s job is to kind of make it match up in some way.”
Cayton shared what he hopes audiences take from the film. He stated, “ I want audiences to see themselves in the story, and I know… I wrote a book about this, and I’ve gone… Toured on that, and everybody comes up to me afterwards and just pours their heart out about like the person in their life who’s suffering from mental illness or took their own life or depression or whatever. I want people to all know how common this is, how okay it all is, and how it’s just like a disease. I feel like even in 2026, we think we’re all woke, and we’re like, ‘we know how to talk about mental illness,’ we don’t still.”
“You say suicide, the air gets sucked out of the room, and we should be really comfortable just recognizing like this is a disease, this is a thing that happens, this happens to families. Let’s tell these stories.”
The film is still currently seeking distribution. However, due to its positive reception at Sundance. It was selected as a festival favorite for the 2026 South by Southwest Film Festival for audiences in Austin, TX, to screen.
Watch our entire interviews and coverage of the premiere in the video above.
