This talk focuses on the flow of a solidifying liquid film on a solid surface subject to a complex kinematics, a process relevant to pancake making or surface coating. The key question this study aims to address is: what is the optimal surface kinematics in order to spread the liquid layer uniformly on the surface? We present an optimal control method based on an adjoint formulation of governing partial differential equation. Key benefits of this method are that no assumption is required on the functional form of the controls and that significant improvement in thickness uniformity can be achieved at a low computational cost.