RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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When Lindsey Ryan showed producers an early draft of her script for Capsized , everyone was in agreement: She must be insane.
"And it's true," the American director laughs over Zoom in late July. We're catching up ahead of the world premiere of her debut feature film at one of Britain's most prestigious film festivals in Edinburgh. The weight of taking a competition title to the Scottish capital is not lost on her, even if she admits the high-risk (and high-reward) project was quite the feat. "I literally did all the things you're not supposed to do," she continues. "It's almost a cliché to say that. But I had an animal. I had children. I had a boat. I've disobeyed the Film God laws." Related Stories Movies BFI Boss Ben Roberts, Picturehouse's Clare Binns on Gen Z's Cinema Renaissance, AI Slop and British Indie Film: "We're Not Great at Comedy" Locarno Open Doors Spotlight 2026 'I Live in V.I.,' a Social Class Satire From Nigeria, Will Dive Into Urban Alienation and Gentrification
If anything, the Film Gods were totally rooting for Ryan and Capsized . It follows an idyllic houseboat trip thrown into disarray when Diane ( Lily Rabe ) and her five children (Sarah Catherine Hook of The White Lotus fame, Griffin Gluck, Eli D Goss, Ada Bland and Joan Stein) are rocked by revelations of financial strife kept secret by the at times charming, mostly chaotic family patriarch, Ray ( Rhys Ifans ). At sea and with a choppy holiday ahead of them, they face a struggle to stay afloat, emotionally and financially — but not before competing in an epic fishing competition.
Shot on a real boat out at sea, with the children contracted for no more than four hours of filming a day and a dangerously small hamster on deck, some filmmakers might have been a little daunted by what Ryan and her crew were attempting to do. (It certainly didn't help that the Coast Guard was keeping a keen eye on their every move.) But if anyone was to pull it off, Ryan — who grew up in Long Island and could drive a boat before she could drive a car — would have been the safest bet. "I have accidentally become the expert boat filmmaker," she tells THR , listing Jaws and Gilligan's Island among some of her maritime inspirations. "The sea theme is very prevalent in my life — I'm just always called to it. I think that the world is so enchanting. It's totally an obsession."
Capsized is an American indie humming with humor, heart and nuance — so richly textured you can almost taste the sea salt — and, as it just so happens, fits perfectly with Edinburgh's reputation for finding fresh, inventive voices. Below, Ryan talks about luring Ifans and Rabe on board, why her antagonist captures such a specific subset of American culture, and how the current state of the U.S. film industry gives way to some bananas, outside-the-box filmmaking: "We want stories that are fresh again… and I think that where there's a will, there's a way."
Your last film, a short called Seasick , is also set on board a boat. Do you have a personal attachment to this setting? Did you grow up on the coast?
Yeah. It's funny. I have accidentally become the expert boat filmmaker. ( Laughs .) Even [in] my early work, when I was experimenting and when I got my first camera, every piece I've ever made is on a boat in the middle of the ocean and every single time I do it, it's insane. Why don't I just try something on land? ( Laughs .) And then somehow I find myself on a boat again.
But I grew up in a big fishing family and where I'm from in Long Island, just outside of the city, it's called the South Shore of Long Island. So I grew up always being on the sea, always being on a boat. I was a deckhand in one of my earlier jobs. So the sea theme is very prevalent in my life, for sure. I'm working on this other big project that, of course, is seafaring the Atlantic coast. A crazy story. That's big and exciting, but I love anything with the ocean and maritime themes.
Do you think you'll keep that as a running theme through your filmography now?
I do. I'm just always called to it. I think that the world is so enchanting. It's an obsession. It's totally an obsession. There are ideas for me that are outside of the seafaring, maritime setting, but any time [something on the sea] comes up, it's always a project that feels so near and dear. But I love movies that have these really unique backdrops and then you get to explore characters. It often ends up being a maritime thing for me, but I also love a desert landscape. Really unique environmental geographies are what I'm drawn to for sure, and water probably being the north star of it all.
When you were honing your craft and working towards becoming a filmmaker, who or what projects were formative for you in this genre?
My most obvious is Jaws . That movie, for me, is perfection. I love Jaws with such a passion. It's terrifying, and I just remember being so gripped. [I remember] watching that movie young, being terrified of the water from that moment after, and just falling in love with the textures of that too — a seaside community, interesting characters. That's everything: getting to meet the wacky characters of a place. I'm trying to think of another. [ Mutiny on the Bounty ] I really loved. Marlon Brando did something so interesting in that movie, and I remember feeling like his performance was a new wave of performance for actors. He brought this contemporary thing to this otherwise very theatrical film. This is gonna be such a crazy answer, but Gilligan's Island . I continuously go back to the colors of that, the way that it feels campy and nostalgic and trapped on an island. So [I'm] definitely influenced by the major nautical movies and all this early Spielberg stuff for me.
It must pose quite the logistical headache, filming on a boat. Is your job made more practically difficult?
I mean, I learned to drive a boat before I could drive a car. I'm fortunate that people in my life had boats and [I'm] able to t...
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