EXCLUSIVE: Conic and Break Out Pictures have teamed up to acquire UK and Ireland rights to Skintown, winner of the Sean Connery Prize at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Conic will handle distribution in England, Scotland and Wales, with Break Out Pictures distributing across the island of Ireland, with a theatrical release scheduled for early 2027. The rights were acquired from sales agent Visit Films.
Skintown is set during the summer of 1994, as Northern Ireland stands on the brink of the IRA ceasefire. Two best friends are determined to escape their hometown of Enniskillen, so become entangled in a reckless scheme to sell stolen drugs at a local rave.
Skintown is directed by Kieron J Walsh, adapted by Ciaran McMenamin from his own 2017 novel. The cast includes 2020 Screen Star of Tomorrow Jack Rowan, with Chris Walley, Jamie Lee O’Donnell and Hope Ikpoku Jnr.
It is produced by Yvonne Donohoe for Ireland’s Keeper Pictures and Brendan J. Byrne for the UK’s Cyprus Avenue Films, with Katie Holly and Walsh as executive producers. Backers on the film include Northern Ireland Screen, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland.
Skintown had its world premiere in competition at Edinburgh International Film Festival in August, where it won the £50,000 Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence. It subsequently won the Hitchcock Audience Award for Best Feature Film at Dinard British and Irish Film Festival.
“The appetite for this wild ride in and out of 90s Northern Irish rave culture through the prism of the Troubles, seems to be there,” said Walsh, who said the “commitment and enthusiasm” of Conic and Break Out “is undeniable”.
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