It has been announced that the U.K. premiere of The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, will open this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF). Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, the film is based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 best-selling memoir of the same name. The film revolves around Ronan’s character, who finds herself washed up on the Scottish islands of Orkney as she battles to rebuild her life after a decade of addiction.
Ronan, who also serves as the co-producer of the film, will attend this year’s EIFF, running Aug. 15-21, alongside Fingscheidt, Liptrot, and the film’s producers Sarah Brocklehurst and Dominic Norris.
EIFF director Paul Ridd said,
The Outrun is a truly special film. Powered by an electric and fearless central performance by Saoirse Ronan, this is lyrical, momentous cinema of real rigor and intelligence and exactly the kind of bold work we want to champion with our relaunched festival. I have been a fan of Nora Fingscheidt’s uncompromising, emotional filmmaking ever since her debut, System Crasher, and I can think of no more fitting combination of announcements than this wonderful film as our opening with the confirmation of the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker’s gracious support for our shorts prize. We are honored to be working with such phenomenal women of cinema.
The Outrun was developed and produced by Brocklehurst of Brock Media, Norris of Arcade Pictures, Ronan, and Jack Lowden, with the support of BBC Film and Screen Scotland.
The executive producers of The Outrun are Protagonist Pictures, BBC Film, Screen Scotland, and MBK Productions. Protagonist Pictures is overseeing worldwide sales for the film, with CAA Media Finance also selling North American rights. The film was sold to Filmcoopi and Cineworx for Switzerland, Cinéart for Benelux, and Stage 6 Films for all other international territories, excluding North America.
The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2024. It was also screened at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section in February 2024.
The Guardian’s Adrian Horton termed it “a moving and delicate adaptation” that “avoid[ed] the many cliches of the cinematic memoir adaptation” and took particular note of “Ronan’s tremendous performance.”
Meanwhile, David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “Fingscheidt’s third narrative feature continues her visceral explorations of the scarred female psyche” and added that Ronan “puts herself through the physical and emotional wringer” in an “emotionally charged performance.”
The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, will be released by StudioCanal in the U.K. and Ireland on Sep. 27.
