Actress and executive producer Diane Lane and director Jan Komasa speak candidly about the evolution of ‘Anniversary’, its unexpected timeliness, and the creative risks behind the intimate political drama.
“It doesn’t really matter which side it is—it’s more about the loss of intimacy, trust, and faith,” says Lane.
“I wanted to show a change that doesn’t feel like a bombastic revolution—it just sneaks up on you,” says Komasa on depicting The Change in the film.
During the interview, Lane and Komasa reflect on how ‘Anniversary’ shifted in meaning between production and release, becoming more resonant as real-world political and cultural divisions intensified. Komasa, who directed the film as his first English-language feature after the Oscar-nominated ‘Corpus Christi’, discusses approaching systemic change through restraint rather than spectacle, drawing on experiences from Poland to frame the story as a gradual unraveling rather than a sudden rupture. Lane emphasized the film’s focus on loyalty, dignity, and vulnerability within a family under pressure, while both note how the industry strikes and compressed production schedule heightened the performances. Together, they position ‘Anniversary’ as a character-driven work that invites reflection rather than certainty, particularly at a moment when conversations about silencing, division, and empathy feel unavoidable.
In this provocative thriller, a close-knit family is torn apart as a radical political movement upends their world. Paul and Ellen Taylor (Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane) enjoy a privileged life in suburban Virginia. He’s a chef and restaurant owner; she’s a Georgetown professor. Their four children—rebellious comedian Anna (Madeline Brewer), environmental attorney Cynthia (Zoey Deutch), insecure writer Josh (Dylan O’Brien), and teenage science prodigy Birdie (Mckenna Grace)—have each gone their own way.
During the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary party, Josh introduces his new girlfriend, Elizabeth “Liz” Nettles (Phoebe Dynevor), a former student of Ellen’s who once wrote a disturbing paper about dismantling democracy. Their uneasy reunion deepens when Ellen learns that Liz’s new book, The Change, is a manifesto for an authoritarian single-party state, published by the secretive Cumberland Company.
Directed by Jan Komasa from a screenplay written by Lori Rosene-Gambino, ‘Anniversary’ stars Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Madeline Brewer, Zoey Deutch, Phoebe Dynevor, Mckenna Grace, Daryl McCormack, and Dylan O’Brien.
‘Anniversary’ is now available to buy or rent through digital retailers.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?
Diane Lane: Pretty good. We’re in Los Angeles. Is that where you are?
AF: No, I’m in Chicago, where I guess you could say we’re enjoying a heat wave.
Lane: Oh yes.
Jan Komasa: Oh.
Lane: Okay. Well, climate change is real. All the changes—the Change in our film, the change in reality, a lot of changes. (Laughs)
Komasa: Yeah. Diane’s character, Ellen, is swimming in November and in the Potomac River.
AF: Jan, ‘Anniversary’ was your first English-language feature. How did you decide on this particular story?
Komasa: Coming from Poland—Central Europe—I was growing up surrounded by the American dream in the 80s and 90s. For my generation, the generation of my parents, knowing so many people emigrating from Poland to United States, there’s about 11 million people of Polish descent in the US, Polish-American. A lot of people in Hollywood are Polish. It’s an American experiment to a degree for us and we follow it closely in Poland, in Europe. I was always playing tricks with my mind—what it would be like to see things that happened in Central Europe—changes of systems, abrupt revolutions, wars, even civil wars, etc.—to see it on American soil.
I think because the United States is a country in which you have the same system for over 200 years, which makes it probably one of the most stable countries on Earth in this regard. So for me, the trick was to bring change, mental change, to how we perceive America. There’s many dystopian films and TV series. We have Maddie Brewer and Mckenna Grace, who played in The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s not like it’s never been tried before. Oh, it’s been tried, and from time to time we can see the apocalypse happening in America, embodied by films like 2012.
I just wanted to give it a shot and try to see something of a system change that doesn’t particularly maybe kind of feel like a super huge bombastic revolution, but it just sneaks up on you and is very delicate. We had changes in Poland—they could be abrupt, but some of them were just invisible and they changed everything. This kind of change, that was the motivating factor to make this film particularly about America.
It could be a Polish film, but it would be too easy, I think. It could be any other European film, it could be just easy. But with America, it’s a different thing, and it’s much more exciting. This idea belonged, it belonged to the US from the very beginning.
AF: Diane, what was it about the script for ‘Anniversary’ that drew you to the role?
Lane: I love ensemble films. I love the perspective of more than one or two characters throughout a story, and this film went so deep in terms of the impact on people’s relationships to themselves, to the world around them, to each other. Change is a word that’s used a lot. Every time we have an election in our country, it’s to welcome a change. That is the arm wrestling match that we’re always having in this country about what should we do next. We have to hire a new person in this job in the government.
It was very timely in the sense of how un-united our United States is and that it is a two-party system, but what I loved about the story was that it deals with the radicalization of people’s attitudes and taking sides. It doesn’t really matter which one it is, it’s more about the loss of intimacy, trust, faith, and the way our our love for each other in a family will override any of that stuff. That will be our saving grace, I think, and that this film deals with that.
AF: Yeah. I noticed how loyalty was a big theme throughout ‘Anniversary’.
Lane: Yeah, loyalty and also, how we identify ourselves. It’s very interesting. Within a family, you’re revealed. People really know you and they know if you’ve been changing with your politics or your attitude, or if you’ve been fired from your job because people are coming after you for what you believe or what you say, or what you teach if you’re a teacher. We thought it was very hyperbolic when I read the screenplay, and we all agreed to do this film, and we were greenlit and ready to go.
It was a wild time when we filmed it. It was 2023. We thought the film might come out and be a message film to help people not feel so divided or to acknowledge their dividedness prior to the last presidential election. This film coming out now—so many things have happened. We’ve had comedians getting canceled, uh, we’ve had people being disappeared. Our film seems naive almost because the federal police are showing their faces.
I mean, the world has changed. Our country has changed. You can measure it however you like. Our film was almost prophetic. When we were making it, we thought it was a lot more fictitious than it’s turned out to be.
AF: Yeah. I’m wondering if that’s one of the reasons why ‘Anniversary’ didn’t do so well at the box office.
Lane: I think it was actually quite—people were afraid of it. I don’t think it was the audiences. I think it was the people that were allowing it to be known, so thank you for having us. We’re trying to get the world to know about this film because the people that have seen it have responded strongly to it. We’re grateful for the opportunity to speak about it because we felt like as a film that deals with the silencing of voices, it’s nice to not be silenced as a film that’s talking about silencing.
Komasa: Yeah, exactly. Coming from Poland, we know a thing or two about changes, right? Over the last 120 years, we had five different systems. Whenever change happens, the first thing that the new whatever ism does is it deals with intellectuals, artists, comedians, sense of humor, academia, and students. That’s why this is the first layer of society that always feels the change first.
This film is sort of about it, too. Before the Change reaches everyone, the first ones to be dealt with are us. I mean, creators, journalists, everybody who is using words and opinions and tries to be critical of life and of life around you. The choice of this particular family to show the Change, it’s not random. This is the environment that feels it from afar. Diane is playing Ellen Taylor—she’s like a seismograph. She knows what’s coming and she is very territorial. She tries to stop it, and it’s unstoppable. Changes happen whether you will we want it or not.
Lane: Even if you’re a political science teacher in a university and you understand how things—she’s kind of like Cassandra in that way, right, Jan?
Komasa: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
AF: Yeah. As soon as I saw the thesis title, I knew that Josh’s girlfriend—maybe she was his fiancé at the time, I can’t remember—I just knew she was bad news.
Lane: That was something that was from eight years prior when she was my student. The fact that she comes back into our family makes mom a little paranoid, right? She gets uncomfortable because that girl frightened her eight years prior when she was a student, because she just was inflexible. A lot of people don’t like critical thinking. It makes them feel threatened, and that’s interesting to address.
AF: Is there anything you brought to the character that wasn’t in the script?
Lane: Interesting. That’s a good question. I like that question. I wish I could sleep on that question and have an answer for you. I’d need to let my subconscious work on that a little bit. I don’t know. That’s my answer. You’ve stumped me. Thank you.
I don’t know if I brought something that wasn’t on the—maybe I’m not the one to know. Maybe Jan would know. Jan and Lori Rosene-Gambino got together to have the seed of the idea and Lori wrote it based on Jan. Well, it’s your story to tell, Jan, but I remember him talking about watching his family change over time through just photo albums, and you see people and you remember how they used to be and where they are at now. Sometimes, it can be sad. And sometimes you watch, wow, that person really ascended into the heights of being popular in their profession. How did that work? It’s just interesting to track as the years go by, and we see if stress really ages people too, honestly.
Komasa: I think what happened when we started to film it, by watching Diane creating Ellen in real time, I realized it’s more than I thought. This character is more about dignity and vulnerability. At least on paper, it was never—I don’t want to spoil the film by the way. I’m navigating through it, but Diane brought so much dignity to the character that wasn’t there in the first place. Dignity in the face of the Change and being challenged, which many people who watch the film thought that this film is not devastating 100% because it gives them hope they can still keep your dignity by being vulnerable, allowing yourself to find vulnerability and fragility with another person, with another human being, because that’s something nobody can take away from you.
AF: What was the most challenging aspect of the production?
Lane: Time, just having time to get it all on film. We had an interesting situation where right when we started rehearsal, the Screen Actors Guild strike commenced. We had to cease and desist from rehearsing, which was really unfair to us, we felt at the time. But I wonder in hindsight, as life is a constant experiment, if that actually wound up informing the film in the sense that because we lost that time of bonding and creating family, because we’re seeing moments of this family, it wound up in service, strangely. That’s how I felt about it in hindsight. I don’t know how you felt, Jan, but losing that initial time together was something that was very difficult because we were very attached.
It’s such a rare opportunity to score a week of rehearsal with your cast, especially a large ensemble like us.
Komasa: Yeah. I can only confirm because the moment the strike happened, and that wasn’t the only strike by the way. There was a scriptwriter’s strike also happening and it was already ongoing. We did this film in the shadow of two strikes. When the strike started and then we got the waiver to make this film with the courtesy of SAG, who wanted to grant us this waiver because they saw that this film is absolutely auteur type of thing in which it’s based on acting and nothing else. As I told Piotr Sobociński Jr., the DP of our film, Piotr, we only have faces and walls in the film. And that’s it. The rest is imagination.
I think when the strike happened, and it kind of completely flipped the table and our schedule and everything went haywire. I think what happened was it’s as if it poured gasoline on us and this film is much more emotional and hectic. Also, many of our actors realized that it’s probably the only film they’re gonna make this year if the if the strike prolongs, and that was true. The moment everybody kind of realized this—I remember it was summer by the end of the first week of shooting, they kicked in an extreme gear. Everybody was like, if this is the only film I’m working on this year, I’m gonna blow it up. This is me. Everybody started to fight for their parts so much so hard.
That was the most beautiful and most rewarding experience to be a director. The only thing I was trying to do is to film it. To be able to film it, what they were doing, everybody. The whole cast was looking up to Diane because the moment Diane said yes, and it was at the very beginning when we finished the script and we had the first draft. Diane was the first one to read it and she said yes. That was the moment it went very fast from that point to completing the whole cast without a casting director. We only had a casting director—she was great by the way—in Ireland because we shot it in Dublin.
The core of the family was already selected very quickly and then this energy of a super strong female mother figure in the center was everywhere every time. Whenever Diane was in the room, people kind of felt like, Oh, mother is here, okay, all right we have to. Diane was setting the tone and their energies were kind of fighting against it or trying to get along with the mother or go against the mother.
Lane: We had a situation of the sibling rivalry for the parents. I’m an only child and I recreated that for my child, but when you have four kids, they’re watching the approval that they are or are not receiving from their parents and that’s something that I hadn’t really paid as much attention to prior. That dynamic was very interesting for me to see all behind the scenes of what’s going on emotionally with my children and how they’re reacting especially at the end.
Komasa: Yeah, exactly. I have three siblings, and even now, in a couple of days we have Xmas, right? Buying gifts for my parents is a thing, I have to tell you. You would read those conversations that we have, and you would be laughing at me. Everybody’s like 40 something, or under just under 40. We’re adults, very adult, and it doesn’t matter. We’re still children, and we’re fighting for every inch of our territory, and it never stops. That’s what I said at the beginning. It’s equally biological as it is psychological. Biology plays a huge role in setting up this film.
AF: Diane, I would be remiss if I did not point out that you once shot a movie in my home state.
Lane: Okay.
AF: ‘Secretariat’.
Lane: Yeah, okay, your home state. Kentucky?
AF: Yep.
Lane: I love it. Okay.
AF: Yeah. In fact, I saw some of the props and wardrobe at the Kentucky Derby Museum back in August.
Lane: Love it. Well, getting to meet Penny Chenery was a highlight of my life. I still have her voicemail on my phone. I keep it forever. I treasure her. She’s an icon. I remember when Secretariat was on the cover of Time magazine. I was a very young girl. I’m still in love with Secretary. I’m a fan. I’m still in love with that horse.
AF: What do you all hope people take away from watching ‘Anniversary’ as they discover it through digital?
Lane: I hope they feel seen. I hope they feel like they recognize an American experience, a family experience, a cautionary tale, and one that’s very got close to the bone that they can relate to, and it’s something that they’ll want to talk about and have strong feelings about one way or the other. But there’s a lot to unpack, and it’s the kind of film that sticks with you for a while. I hope they have conversations afterwards with friends.
Komasa: Yeah. I can only second that. If anybody—after watching this film—feels the urge to kind of recognize small fractures on the body of their relationship with their loved ones or once loved ones, and feels shame or guilt or whatever and tries to do something about it, great. Many films actually have therapeutic quality, but this film was always from the very beginning kind of like a gut punch. It had this energy of a gut punch, like, wake up. We do it our to ourselves. Us—we’re doing it to ourselves.
Obviously, the Change is coming from the outside. That’s how we perceive it. But then, if we were ready to kind of question the close ones, if they’re close and in love and not kind of appreciate it when it’s there, then I think that’s where the tragedy starts. I’m not being—again coming from Poland—if the tragedy is from the outside, fine. All right, cool. All right, it’s tragic, but you have to live with it.
We have to kind of find your footing. But the worst possible thing is when it comes from the inside, and it’s probably a testament to how just unattentive we become with each other.
Lane: You mean the divisiveness and to protect against it?
Komasa: Yeah. It starts with small things, with lack of gentleness towards each other. You don’t want to address your brothers, your sisters, your mothers, your husbands, whatever, small little things. Because maybe you have no power, you’re no strength, no whatever, you don’t have time, you don’t have patience. And then with time, it can grow into a a monster of a beast that can break you apart.