Filmmaker Jared Isaac’s debut feature, An Autumn Summer, is currently in theatrical release in select cities ahead of its digital release on June 9 on Apple TV and all major VOD platforms, including Vudu and Fandango at Home. Recently featured in Deadline, the coming-of-age romance stars Sing Street and Wayne actor Mark McKenna alongside Shrinking breakout Lukita Maxwell, who also stars in A24’s upcoming Backrooms. The film follows Kevin (McKenna) and Cody (Maxwell), a young couple spending their final summer before college in a magical Northern Michigan lake town, chasing the feeling of an endless summer in the eve of adulthood, and was cinematographer Brandon Somerhalder’s debut narrative feature film, whose work on The Queen of Basketball won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 2022, and whose 2026 documentary Come See Me in the Good Light received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Their collaboration captures the wistfulness and emotional uncertainty of transition in calm, serene fashion. Semi-autobiographical in nature, the story draws from Isaac’s own close friendships and formative summers spent in Northern Michigan. The film premiered on the festival circuit to strong audience and critical response, including a Best Director win for Isaac at the 2025 Phoenix Film Festival, before its Chicago premiere at the legendary Music Box Theatre on April 23, featuring a post-screening Q&A moderated by acclaimed filmmaker Joe Swanberg. The venue held special significance for the Chicago native, who grew up watching films there. Jared recently adapted Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage for Samuel Goldwyn Films and is currently developing narrative projects on the horizon. In our conversation, we discussed Jared’s journey of independently bringing his first feature to life, the value of casting and how that can enable intuitive chemistry between actors, crafting the film’s dreamlike montage sequences, lessons learned from working on Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, as an actor, and a disco feature he has written — including the actor he believes is perfect for the lead role.
Opening Credits: Ketsa - My Deal I CC BY 4.0; Black Ant - 5 Piece I CC BY 3.0. Closing Credits: Podington Bear - No Solace I CC BY-NC 3.0.