Tuner (film)

Tuner
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniel Roher
Written by	Daniel Roher Robert Ramsey
Produced by	JoAnne Sellar Lila Yacoub Teddy Schwarzman Michael Heimler
Starring	Leo Woodall Havana Rose Liu Lior Raz Tovah Feldshuh Jean Reno Dustin Hoffman
Cinematography	Lowell A. Meyer
Edited by	Greg O'Bryant
Music by	Will Bates1
Production company	English Breakfast Productions
Distributed by	Elevation Pictures (Canada) Black Bear Pictures (United States)
Release dates	August 30, 2025 (2025-08-30) (Telluride) May 22, 2026 (2026-05-22) (United States)
Running time	107 minutes2
Countries	Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	$7 million
Box office	$9.1 million34

Tuner is a 2025 crime thriller film directed by Daniel Roher and written by Roher and Robert Ramsey. The film stars Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, Jean Reno and Dustin Hoffman. It follows a piano tuner, Niki White (Woodall), with a hearing condition that gives him heightened sensitivity to sound. When his mentor Harry (Hoffman) racks up a medical debt, White earns cash to pay it off by using his sensitive hearing to crack safes and becomes embroiled with a criminal group.

Tuner had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2025, and was released in the United States by Black Bear Pictures on May 22, 2026. The film received positive reviews from critics.

Niki White is the apprentice of New York City piano tuner Harry Horowitz, a friend of his late father. Once a gifted musician, Niki has hyperacusis and can no longer play piano, wearing ear protection at all times against loud noises. After Harry forgets the combination to his safe, Niki teaches himself to open it with his heightened hearing, discovering a talent for safe-cracking.

While tuning at a music conservatory, Niki meets Ruthie, a driven student pianist. At a wealthy client’s home, Niki interrupts a trio of Israeli thieves and breaks into the safe for them, earning a job offer from their leader, Uri. With Harry’s encouragement, Niki strikes up a romance with Ruthie after repairing her treasured piano, and reveals it took years of exposure therapy to manage his sensitivity to sound. After Harry is hospitalized after a heart attack, Niki accepts Uri’s offer, determined to save Harry and his wife Marla from debt. Proving himself on Uri’s own safe, Niki joins him, his accomplice Yoni, and nephew Benny as they use their security company to rob wealthy homes. Overcoming Ruthie’s misgivings about their relationship, Niki gives her a stolen watch and introduces her to Marla and the bedridden Harry, secretly paying his hospital bills.

Uri enlists Niki to open a safe for a pair of Korean gangsters, retrieving the seed phrase to their uncle’s cryptocurrency wallet. The uncle arrives, holding everyone at gunpoint and forcing Niki to eat the only copy of the password, but is shot dead by Benny. Niki flees, discovering that the wallet holds close to $18 million. Harry dies, and Uri surprises Niki at shiva, demanding his help to steal the digital key to the uncle’s money.

A grieving Niki decides not to join the robbery, but Ruthie’s anxiety about her upcoming performance and his own resentments of his lost musical career lead them to lash out at each other. Storming out of her apartment, Niki is captured by Uri’s crew. Disoriented by an air horn, he is forced to open the uncle’s safe before racing to Ruthie’s performance of her original work, with renowned composer Marius Maissner in the audience. Maissner invites Ruthie to join a new project as his assistant, but recognizes her watch as his grandmother’s heirloom, which survived the Holocaust alongside his grandfather’s watch before they were stolen from his safe. Niki arrives and is confronted by Ruthie, and admits the truth to Maissner. Assuring him that Ruthie is blameless, Niki offers to recover his grandfather’s watch in exchange for not involving the police.

Caught breaking into Uri’s safe, Niki begs for the watch and reveals its history. He convinces Benny and Yoni, but Uri viciously beats him and ruptures his eardrums in the process. Waking up in hospital, Niki discovers that doctors successfully repaired his earlobe damaged by Yuri, and that he is now partially deafened, but no longer needs earplugs to tolerate noise; Uri has also left him the watch. Leaving Marla his ill-gotten money, Niki delivers the watch to a grateful Maissner, who leaves him and Ruthie alone together. As an emotional Ruthie looks on, Niki gives a virtuoso piano performance for the first time in years, before declaring it needs tuning.

• Leo Woodall as Niki White
• Dustin Hoffman as Harry Horowitz
• Havana Rose Liu as Ruthie
• Lior Raz as Uri
• Tovah Feldshuh as Marla Horowitz
• Jean Reno as Marius Maissner
• Nissan Sakira as Benny
• Gil Cohen as Yoni

In August 2024, Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman joined the cast of the film, with Daniel Roher set to direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Robert Ramsey, and Black Bear Pictures and Elevation Pictures producing.⁵ In October 2024, Havana Rose Liu, Jean Reno, Lior Raz, and Tovah Feldshuh joined the cast.⁶

Principal photography began in October 2024, in Toronto.⁷⁸

Tuner was released in limited theaters on May 22, 2026, before expanding wide on May 29.⁹ It had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival.¹⁰ It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2025.¹¹¹² In September 2025, Black Bear Pictures acquired the U.S. distribution rights.¹³

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 171 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Announcing Leo Woodall as a compelling star talent, Tuner enhances its nifty caper setup with a smart sense of humor and vivid characterizations."¹⁴

Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.¹⁵

Cath Clarke in The Guardian gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: " [Woodall and Hoffman] are a real pleasure to watch in an easy, unforced drama that mixes romcom moments with a relaxed crime thriller. It’s like the Safdie brothers in chill out mode."¹⁶

In Empire, Harry Stainer also gave 4/5 stars, writing: "If there’s a flaw in this grand heist, it’s that Tuner can’t quite get away with all the genres it’s trying to pull off. Its crime antics are never as convincing as the drama and romance the film invests so heavily in, and as those increasingly far-fetched hijinks take centre stage in the third act, the film does lose some of its cool. ... It may not be 18-carat gold, but Tuner is still a damn good watch."¹⁷

Henry K. Miller, writing for the British Film Institute, called Tuner "a beautifully constructed film about beautifully constructed things: pianos, watches, concertos – and safes."¹⁸

For Variety, Peter Debruge wrote: "Hoffman isn’t in the movie as much as you might like, but when he’s on-screen, a script already brimming with warmth and humor ... foams over in the best possible way."¹⁹

The film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2025.²⁰

Roher and Ramsey won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2025.²¹ Woodall was also nominated for Best Actor in a Canadian Film.²²