The Young Offenders

#IrishFilm: Vertigo Releasing acquires multi-territory rights to distribute The Young Offenders

ScreenDaily is reporting that Vertigo Releasing has acquired the distribution rights to Peter Foott’s hit Irish comedy The Young Offenders for the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

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). XYZ handled the North American sales, and handled this deal with Foott for Vico Films, and Ed Caffrey for Vertigo Releasing.

Commenting on the news Rupert Preston and Ed Caffrey of Vertigo Releasing said:

The Young Offenders is one of the funniest and freshest films we’ve seen in years and we’re thrilled to be working with Peter to bring the film to a UK and international audience.

Foott added:

The cast, crew and myself are delighted! Having our film reach such a huge audience is incredible and we are so happy it’s Vertigo who are taking us on this journey.

The Young Offenders is still on wide release in Ireland via Wildcard Distribution, and has already made more than €1 million at the Irish box-office. Follow the film and get in the conversation with #TheYoungOffenders via Twitter and Facebook.