A24 won the bidding war for Best Picture at Cannes, snatching up world rights to Jordan Firstman. Kid Club.
A24 beat out nearly all other major independent distributors and studios, including Focus Features, Searchlight, Netflix and Mubi, to secure the film, a broad but poignant family comedy set in the New York club scene.
The first man wrote and directed Kid Club In his first appearance, he stars alongside Cara Delevingne, Diego Calfa, and newcomer Reggie Absolom. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last week, to rave reviews and buyers quickly started circling.
Firstman plays a washed-up party promoter who has spent a decade in dance halls and darkrooms, just doing the bare minimum to survive. He’s forced to change his life when the son he never knew he had – the result of a messy threesome 10 years ago – arrives on his doorstep.
Financial details of the deal have not been revealed but the offer is believed to have reached eight figures after studios showed interest and A24 moved to acquire the rights for the whole world. A24 will still have to sell the film to international buyers outside its network of existing international distribution deals, which includes the likes of Leonen in Germany and Austria, and Nordisk Film in Scandinavia.
Academy Award Winner Alex Cuoco (Anora) and Galen Corr (Lurking) produced Kid Clubalong with Topic Studio’s Ryan Heller (Real pain, Splitsville) and Michael Bloom. Topic Studios also financed the film with Stay Gold as co-financier. Firstman also serves as executive producer alongside Ian Stratford, Charles Croft and Yasmin Daghegian for Topic and Olmo Schnabel and Daniela Taplin for Stay Gold.
UTA Independent Film Group negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmaking team. Charades International helped launch the film in Cannes.
Firstman is repped by UTA, Black Bear, The Lede Company and Frankfurt Kline & Sells. Delevingne is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dean, while Calva is with WME, Entertainment 360, Lumina Management, Narative, Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman. Absolom is represented by Mark Jermin Management, Isgandarov by Elevate Entertainment and Bloch Law. Coco is repped by Dissident, CAA, Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark. Core is represented by UTA.
