“A thrill ride” – The Hollywood Reporter
“Standout… funny, sexy” – Vogue
“A visionary new voice” – IndieWire
What do these three quotes have in common? They are all referencing the groundbreaking new film from Lilian Mehrel, a film that won the Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories Award, SFFilm Rainin Award, and much more, a film that “brilliantly transforms grief, desire, and human connection into something electric.” The film in question, of course, is Honeyjoon.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Lilian Mehrel about her new feature film Honeyjoon and her journey as a director to create the film.
Interviewed by Nathan Rifkin on July 31, 2026. This interview has been edited for clarity & brevity.
Nathan:
You won Tribeca, which is incredible, and doing it on your directorial debut is even more impressive. When did you decide that you want to be a director and what path did you take from there?
Lilian:
So in hindsight, it actually started a long time ago when I was a little kid. I grew up watching movies. And then one day, I think it was when I saw the Royal Tenenbaums for the first time and it clicked in me that there’s such a thing as a director. Like there’s someone creating a distinct world and vision. And then I realized that all I needed was a camera and then I could do that. So I actually borrowed a camera and just started making stuff when I was like 13. I would grab my brother and friends and force them to be in it. And sometimes I would act in it out of necessity, but that’s not my thing. Even back then, I was already thinking about the audience because I was really excited to show stuff to people.
I didn’t know you were allowed to do for work. I thought I had to be a doctor. So when I went to college, I was pre-med. And then finally one day I realized I need to go for this, all in. I ended up going to NYU Tisch grad film, and I made a lot of short films.
I think a really crucial part of becoming the filmmaker that I am today is actually embarrassment. When you make stuff early on, it is embarrassing because it’s not everything you wanted it to be. But you make it anyway, and you show people anyway, even if a little part of you is dying inside. When there’s something in there, when there’s some spirit, there’s something that people can connect to, they’ll laugh at the jokes, or they’ll feel something. I realized that it doesn’t have to be perfect.
I got to the point after making a lot of short films that this feature was in me, ready to be born, and I wrote the script. And then one thing led to another and I was standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people and a panel of celebrity judges at Tribeca and I won the biggest film production prize in the world. I won a million dollars.
Nathan:
What is Honeyjoon?
Lilian:
Honeyjoon is the kind of movie where the whole point of the movie isn’t the surface plot, it’s not really what it’s about. Yes, it’s about a family grief comedy. They go to this island for an anniversary of the dad’s death, and they go on a tour, and things happen on the island. But what it’s really about is the tonal balance of light and dark, of comedy and emotion. When you watch this movie you are going to laugh out loud – there are these moments of big belly laughs – and there are moments that you’re going to be really quiet and emotional. At the end, you’ll have gone through these waves of laugh, cry, laugh, cry and you feel what life feels like to me.
Nathan:
How do you balance that dark comedy aspect of the film, treading a line between making light of a difficult moment and spending too much time in grief?
Lilian:
What I’m interested in doing in storytelling is playing with tension and release. You stretch out the tension for a little while and might get somewhere dark, emotional, and sad, and the audience is yearning for a break – they want comic relief or catharsis of some kind. So if you stretch it just a bit further and hit that moment, I can guarantee that no matter what age, gender, or culture, people will burst into laughter at this exact moment because of that tension and release.
Nathan:
Filmmakers like Christopher Nolan have said that they view the role of the director as being the audience on set – how much do you relate to that?
Lilian:
I’ve started to think that the key skill of a director is communication: You are communicating this vision to your crew, your cast, and then to your audience. At every step of the way, you are communicating. The whole point, and I’ve felt this way since I was thirteen, is the moment the audience experiences and what lingers after. Ultimately it’s about constantly understanding human behavior. Film is where we explore what it means to be alive, laughing at what it is to be human, crying at what it is to be human.
From the moment I’m writing, I’m already seeing the film play in my head. And that stays with me at every given stage. And when you finally do experience it with the audience, there is a magic, spontaneous element. You don’t know for sure how people are going to respond. But the fact that you were connected to them the whole time, thinking about them, putting yourself in their shoes, because you are also an audience member.
Nathan:
The location you filmed at is really unique – what was it like filming there?
Lilian:
It was amazing and also very difficult. The Azores are these islands in the middle of the Atlantic, part of Portugal. To shoot your first feature film in an island in the middle of the Atlantic, in Europe, is wild. Much of the film is set outside, too, and you have no control over the weather. It was crazy, but also magical. When I embraced the spontaneity of the island, it made everything better. In the script, there were supposed to be these blue and green lakes next to each other, but the weather had other plans, and I wrote a new scene on the way to the location, and the movie is better for it.
Nathan:
Were there any scenes in this where you had to sacrifice what you wanted, or were you able to get everything in time?
Lilian:
Sometimes there’s a gift in the limitations, and sometimes you find your way around it. I wanted to do a scene on a whalewatching boat, but we didn’t have the time or budget to do it. One day, I took my iphone and went with the actors on a whalewatching boat and got the shots myself.
Honeyjoon is out in select theatres now with Utopia’s Circle Collective. You can find screenings for the award winning film here: https://honeyjoon.substack.com/p/upcoming-screenings
