Good news from the Americas (for once) where Peter Foott’s hit Irish comedy The Young Offenders has picked up three awards at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival in California, winning Best Feature Film, Best Feature Screenplay, and Best Feature Direction.
Inspired by Ireland’s biggest cocaine seizure of €440 million off the coast of Cork in 2007, The Young Offenders follows two Cork inner-city teenagers, Conor and Jock, as they embark on a 160km road trip on stolen bikes in the hopes of finding an unrecovered bale of cocaine. It’s the debut feature from Peter Foott and introduces new acting talent Chris Walley and Alex Murphy in the lead roles with comedians Hilary Rose and PJ Gallagher also starring.
Since its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh during the summer where it was awarded Best Irish Feature (sharing with A Date for Mad Mary), it has gone on to charm Irish and international audiences alike. Not only did the film achieve the highest opening for an Irish film at the Republic of Ireland Box Office this year, it also picked up an Honourable Mention for Best Comedy at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas and was well received at the BFI London International Film Festival where it had its UK premiere earlier this month.
Produced by Julie Ryan, it is a Vico Films production with Cormac Fox and Michael Doherty as executive producers. Creative talent includes Director of Photography Patrick Jordan (Talking to My Father, Leave), and Editor Colin Campbell (You’re Ugly Too), with music from Ray Harman (Love/Hate, Patrick’s Day).
The Young Offenders is still on release in Ireland, having earned more than €1 million at the Irish box-office and cementing a place in the Top 25 highest-grossing releases of 2016.
The Los Angeles Comedy Festival is the largest comedy festival in the United States featuring Film, Live Comedy, and a Screenplay Competition. The past festivals have featured thousands of performers and hundreds of films from LA and around the world.
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