After his documentary about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny exploded in popularity, claiming the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Favorite Award and winning an Oscar a year later, Daniel Roher was in kind of a rut.
“I didn’t feel like making anything,” the 33-year-old filmmaker from Toronto said during a Q&A on the opening day of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. “I was really scared and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment, and I just kind of froze up and got terrified. Baseball players call it the yips — this sensation of not wanting to do the thing that you do. And that was my nightmare."
A little bit of that predicament has bled into one of his latest films, “Tuner,” which marked the opening screening at Sundance on Thursday.
In “Tuner,” Niki White (played by Leo Woodall) is a piano prodigy who no longer plays due to developing a unique auditory condition that makes him hypersensitive to loud sounds. To stay connected to the instrument he loves, he works as a piano tuner alongside Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman). Throughout the comedy/thriller/romance, Niki grapples with this loss and explores how to make the most of his auditory condition — including cracking safes.
“Tuner” is a new direction for Roher, who has primarily done documentaries; it marks his fictional feature debut.
“This film is very much a reaction to ‘Navalny,’” Roher said during the Q&A after “Tuner,” which premiered last year at the Telluride Film Festival. “This idea that I don’t want to be put in a box. I want to be expansive … prove to myself that I could do this.”
And as Roher shared ahead of the Sundance screening, one person who helped him navigate that transition was the late Rob Reiner.
Daniel Roher dedicates ‘Tuner’ screening to Rob and Michelle Reiner
“I find it to be very corny when filmmakers cry,” Roher told the audience attending the sold-out screening at the Eccles Theatre in Park City. “I don’t like it, it’s not my style.”
But the director couldn’t help but get emotional as he talked about moving away from documentaries for the first time — and how Rob Reiner gave him guidance through it all.
After the success of “Navalny,” Roher said, people in the industry started reaching out to him to talk about the film — including Rob and Michelle Reiner.
“Rob, who was a hero of mine, really was a mentor to me,” he said with emotion. “We had a few meals that were electrifying, and I got to know him and Michelle. The last time I saw them was at our baby shower.”
Rob Reiner actually read the screenplay for “Tuner” and gave Roher notes.
“Rob always said, ‘Make the movie fun. ... Create something that people want to watch, make it entertaining. Put substance in there but keep it fast on its feet,’” Roher said right before the film kicked off the Sundance festival.
“I want to dedicate this screening to Rob and Michelle,” he continued to a long round of applause. “I made this film in the spirit of Rob Reiner and the films of his that I loved so much, that I grew up with. And I hope it’s something that when you’re finished, everyone’s feeling like, ‘That was a really great movie.’”
“Tuner,” which will likely draw an R rating for strong language, is scheduled to hit theaters in late May.
‘Navalny’ director Daniel Roher calls Sundance move a ‘rebirth’
The “Tuner” screening at Sundance comes four years after “Navalny” premiered at the Park City-based festival. But it’s actually the first time Roher has been able to present his film in person at Sundance.
“Navalny,” the director’s Sundance debut, premiered in 2022 — when the festival was completely virtual due to the pandemic.
“I had the Sundance, but not the here — not the Park City, not the Eccles, not the Main Street, not the Egyptian — which was really, for me, incredibly disappointing and very upsetting,“ Roher told the Deseret News ahead of the screening. ”But at the end of the day, Sundance is still Sundance. It launched the film in the way that we needed it to be launched.“
Roher said he visited Park City the following year to experience the festival in-person. He’s a big fan of the directors brunch — which was also a highlight of the festival for the late Robert Redford.
Now, this year, he has two films at the Sundance Film Festival: “Tuner” and the world premiere of “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” which he told the Deseret News “is the hardest film I’ve ever made.”
While he’ll miss coming to Utah for Sundance, Roher said he’s also looking forward to the festival’s future in Boulder, Colorado.
“There is something sad, of course, about Sundance leaving Park City,” he told the Deseret News. “It seems impossible. The Egyptian is like the iconic Sundance image, where so many of my heroes were discovered — where my own career was sort of launched.
“But at the end of the day, it’s also a rebirth, and there’s incredible reasons for optimism.”
