Irish feature film Kneecap to receive World Premiere at 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Posted: 6th December 2023
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to congratulate Rich Peppiatt and Irish production companies Wildcard and Fine Point Films, as Irish co-production Kneecap has been announced to receive its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival this January.
Screening in the NEXT section on the festival’s opening night, Kneecap will be the first Irish-language film ever selected for Sundance. The film is helmed by acclaimed journalist and filmmaker Rich Peppiatt, and is a semi-fictionalised account of the origins and rise of Northern Irish rap group Kneecap.
Keith Potter, Head of Feature Film at Screen Ireland, said:
“Our huge congratulations to director Rich Peppiatt and the entire creative team behind Kneecap on the film’s selection to Sundance – the first ever feature film in the Irish language to premiere there. Kneecap is a music biopic like no other, and we’re looking forward to it making an impact with audiences in Utah – and beyond – next year.”
When fate brings disillusioned music teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed ‘low life scum’ Naoise and Liam Óg, the sound of Irish music is changed forever. Under the name Kneecap, their band begins moulding the language to fit their tough, anarchic & hedonistic lives. A language encumbered with forty words for stone now has one for stoned.
But to get their voices heard the trio must overcome police, paramilitaries & politicians as the future status of the Irish language erupts into the public arena – with them at the centre. Yet their worst enemies are often themselves, as family and relationship pressures threaten to pull the plug on their dreams.
Sundance is renowned for its recognition of new filmmaking voices and its competitive selection process, and the festival has acted as a powerful platform for Irish film in previous years, including this year’s Flora and Son (2023), Sinead O’Connor documentary Nothing Compares (2022) and Irish drama Herself (2020).
Kneecap was shot on location in Belfast and Dundalk last year, and is produced by Trevor Birney for Fine Point Films, Jack Tarling for Shudder Films and Patrick O’Neill for Wildcard. The film is supported by Screen Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen, BFI, TG4, Coimisiún na Meán, Mother Tongues, Great Point Media, Charades, Curzon and Wildcard. Worldwide sales are being handled by Charades, with Anonymous Content across North American sales.