IFTA Announces Kneecap As Ireland’s Entry For Oscars® 2025 - International Feature Film

The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) has announced that Irish language feature Kneecap has been selected to represent Ireland in the Oscar® International Feature Film category at the upcoming 97th annual Academy Awards. 

The film, written and directed by Rich Peppiatt (One Rogue Reporter) stars the members of the West Belfast rap trio Kneecap (Móglai Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Provaí) alongside an ensemble cast including Oscar® nominee Michael Fassbender, Simone Kirby, Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds and Adam Best. 

Kneecap was selected by IFTA’s 2024 Selection Committee, including Oscar® nominated actor Stephen Rea (The Crying Game, The English); award-winning directors Colm Bairéad (The Quiet Girl) and Lisa Mulcahy (Lies We Tell, Ridley Road); award-winning actors Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, Hunger) and Bríd Ní Neachtain (Róise & Frank, The Banshees of Inisherin); and award-winning producer Rebecca O’Flanagan (Flora & Son, Viva).

Set in West Belfast in 2019, when fate brings Belfast schoolteacher JJ into the orbit of Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other.  Rapping in their native Irish language, the trio create their own genre of Irish punk rap, melding the Irish and English language with electrifying energy.  Their writing and performance reimagine what rap can be as a creative and cultural force, rooted in community.  Kneecap ultimately become the unlikely figureheads of a Civil Rights movement to save their mother tongue, upending preconceptions about language and place and spearheading a cultural revival and interest from their legions of young followers.

Kneecap was produced by Trevor Birney and Jack Tarling for Fine Point Films and Mother Tongues Films, with Patrick O'Neill at Wildcard acting as Co-Producer. Funding for the film was provided by Northern Ireland Screen, the Irish Language Broadcast Fund, Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland, the BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Coimisiún na Meán and TG4, Dias Feld and Kamila Serkebaeva, with backing from Great Point Media.

Sony Pictures Classics are releasing Kneecap in the US on Friday 2nd August, and it will hit Irish cinemas from Wildcard Distribution on Thursday 8th August. Curzon will release the film in the UK on Friday 23rd August.

Kneecap has been described as “One of the best music biopics ever made” (NME); “Big, Booming and Fearless” (RogerEbert.com); “Bursting with unruly energy that practically escapes the confines of the screen” (Variety); “Clearly destined for cult status” (Screen Daily); “Riotous and Rebellious” (Hot Press); and “A must-see film that has it all” (Today FM).  The film received its World Premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January this year, where it won a NEXT Audience Award, the first Irish language film to win at the festival. It went on to play at Sundance London, and was the opening film of Galway Film Fleadh, where it won three prizes including the Audience Award.

Kneecap joins a stellar list of Irish-made films selected by IFTA to represent Ireland in the Oscar International Feature category over the years. In 2023, An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl (Irish language) became Oscar Nomination; and in 2016 Viva (Spanish language) was Oscar shortlisted. 

IFTA Academy CEO, Áine Moriarty said:  “The Irish Academy is delighted to announce Kneecap to represent Ireland in the Oscar International Feature Film category.  What a brilliantly creative powerhouse of a film, with its bold and fearless storytelling and its raw and boisterous screen performances.  Nowhere before has filmmaking brought together the Irish language and music in such rebellious and youthful defiance. We have no doubt that Kneecap will both surprise and entertain international audiences, and ultimately leave its unique mark on international Academy Members too”. 

Writer/Director Rich Peppiatt added: “Since the start of the year when Kneecap premiered in Sundance we’ve been humbled by the grá the film has received around the world. But nothing hits quite like the reception we’ve had at home in Ireland. To get the opportunity to represent our nation on the biggest film stage of them all is an absolute privilege. Míle Buíochas to IFTA and everyone who’s been part of and supported our wee film.”

Producers Trevor Birney, Jack Tarling & Patrick O’Neill said: “It is an honour for Kneecap to be selected as Ireland’s Oscar entry, and for it to be announced on the eve of the film’s release in North America, Ireland and the UK is such a welcome boost.  We would like to thank IFTA for choosing Kneecap and placing the film in such esteemed company – to be in a category that boasts previous winners such as The Zone of Interest, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Lives of Others and Parasite is such a thrill.  We would like to thank everyone associated with the production of the film for all their hard work and dedication over the last few years. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but that can also be said of film production!”

The three members of Kneecap the band also reacted. 

Mo Chara said: “We want to thank IFTA for selecting our film to be the Irish submission for an Oscar …..that’s sound of yous. It’s obviously great that films in the Irish language are having some kind of effect on people, you had An Cailín Ciúin and stuff. For a culture that was so brutally oppressed for so long, the language was almost driven to extinction, now it’s on the biggest stage of the world and it’s an absolute privilege.”

DJ Provaí added: “Is mór an onóir dúinn gur roghnaigh IFTA Kneecap mar a roghnaíseachú don Oscar - tá muid fíor bhuíoch astu… agus go raibh maith agat as ucht an Oscar!” (“We are honoured that IFTA has chosen Kneecap as its Oscar shortlist - we are truly grateful… and thank you for the Oscar!”)

Mógali Bap added: “Obviously the movie is about the Irish language in Ireland, about young people reengaging with the language and putting their own stamp on the language. One thing we’ve noticed in America is it resonates internationally. It's an international story and makes people reflect on their own culture and language, and to consider the relationship they have with their indigenous or native language. It comes at a time when people are looking for something with a bit more substance, a bit more intrinsic value. That’s the beauty of this movie, we’re meeting people from all walks of life and it’s resonating and they’re leaving the movie feeling proud about their own identity”.

The Oscar® International Feature shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 17th December, and the final five Nominees will be announced on Friday 17th January 2025. The 97th Academy Awards ceremony (the Oscars®) takes place in Los Angeles on Sunday 3rd March, 2025.