Daniel Roher’s breakout documentary “Navalny,” revolving around Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and events related to his poisoning, earned the filmmaker his first Academy Award. But what happens, when you have reached the pinnacle of success right out the gate? What goal do you fly towards next? In Roher’s case, he delved into a unique narrative world creating a tale of a talented piano tuner’s (Leo Woodall) meticulous skills leading him to discover an unexpected aptitude for safe cracking while turning his life and everyone around him upside down. The result was “Tuner.”
On a quick break during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival as this now-in-theaters film was doing the rounds, Roher reflected on his previous Oscar win, the events that led him to creating a crime thriller tackling elements of hearing-impaired characters and melting it with romance, all while embracing his own journey of self-discovery.
You felt like after winning the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award for “Navalny,” your career was done. Why is that?
There’s a great deal of pressure that comes with achieving so much, in my case, at such a young age. How do you follow up a film like “Navalny”? How do I follow up winning an Oscar compounded by the fact that I was in a head space where routinely I’d have well-wishers with good intentions saying, “How are you going to follow this one up…Wow, you should just retire now…There’s no beating this one.”
As well-intentioned those comments may have been, it made me very anxious. If you look at the history of who’s won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, you know there’s a pattern of people winning that award who are struggling to cope with it and figure out what to do next. Consequently, I coped with that unknowingness and the looming specter that was this movie, this award and the legacy of Navalny. That’s when I started writing “Tuner”. I sort of channeled some of the fear and anxiety I was having about what next into this project.
Talk to me about the process of casting Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu.
I think it was important you had two people that could actually play the piano, except for they couldn’t play when we started. If you look at Leo’s comfortability around the instrument, not just in playing, but in tuning, opening the lid, pulling out the key action, etc., all of these skills he had to acquire and master. He had zero piano playing experience when we started.
Now, Havana had maybe grade six piano, middle school piano experience, but she hadn’t played in years. So, both Leo and Havana had to really master the pieces in the movie in a compelling, real way to look good on camera, which they both did. Now, casting a romance is always tricky. You need to find two people who have chemistry, who look great next to one another and a couple the audience is rooting for. Leo is obviously an emerging heartthrob and one of the great actors of his generation, without doubt. Havana naturally possesses the discipline, the skill, talent, drive, determination, and ambition that was written on the page in this character, Ruby. It’s almost as if when I found Havana, I was, like, looking at this woman who I invented, who and it’s really special when you find an actor who so closely mirrors that ideal.
We know Dustin Hoffman is an Oscar winner who comes from the Broadway stage and Tovah Feldshuh has been a Broadway star for fifty years. Both are exemplary and it was so rewarding to see them in this project. The fact this was kind of set in the New York-ish area with these two theater legends, in a story literally about something that’s happening on the stage was really cool.
I’ve noticed the difference between actors who emerge from the stage versus actors who are native to film is that actors who emerge from the stage are less afraid of playing. An actor like Dustin views the concept of a take as an opportunity to try new things. When you tell an actor like Tovah or like Dustin to just play and explore, you will undoubtedly find things you never anticipated or dreamed of, and that is the miracle of an actor like these two.
You want to give them the opportunity to improvise, to flex that muscle, and have the flexibility as the director and the writer to say, “Don’t worry about my words, that’s when really special lines and expressions and ideas emerge.
The way you filmed Leo Woodall safecracking, the cylinders, how they clicked and how sound was its own character within the confines of this piece. Can you just speak to why you chose to tell the story in that way? We could’ve watched him crack a safe and nobody would care, but the way it was filmed and executed was absolutely brilliant.
I’ve always felt like sound is the most underutilized of the cinematic palette. Since the 1920s, movies have been sound and images, with images always taking center stage. It’s a visual medium first, and I’ve always refuted that. It’s a sound and image medium. But it’s not common practice to think about the sound design, about how the sound and the auditory motifs in a movie can contribute to the emotional, experiential, visceral palette of watching film.
In this film, I wanted to write a story that was sound-oriented and sound forward focusing meant to mirror some of my favorite movies. If you think about the great sound movies from history, films like “The Conversation” by Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out” or Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” these are movies that put the sound forward-facing and make them as important in terms of a character. That’s what I sought to do with “Tuner,” to create a visceral experience where audiences could hear the movie as much as they see the movie.
When we found Johnny Burn, who I believe to be the most talented sound designer, a sound philosopher, sound wizard, who really nailed down the sound mix, which just brought the film to life. I felt like Dr. Frankenstein in my laboratory and Johnny was turning his knobs and working his magic. The monster on the table, which was the film, you know, sat up and came to life and for me, that was, like, an unbelievable experience.
I feel like there’s so many different things within the confines of the film. There’s something for everybody. Congratulations.
This really means so much coming from you guys. One of the highlights of my TIFF going experience was meeting Roger Ebert when I was 14 around 2009. In a sea full of celebrities, he was the guy who I was most nervous and excited to go shake his hand and say hello. He was very kind to me.
Produced and distributed by Black Bear Pictures, “Tuner” opened in limited release on May 22, 2026, expanding wider this Friday, May 29, after having previous premieres during the 2025 Telluride and Toronto International Film festivals.