2024: a magical year for Tailored!
2024 was a year like no other for Tailored! From prestigious film festivals to multiple award wins and thrilling new productions, this year has been nothing short of extraordinary. We are immensely proud of all the work that we did and the teams we collaborated with, and we eagerly anticipate what lies ahead in 2025. Here’s a look back at some of our highlights:
FESTIVALS
THE APPRENTICE - OFFICIAL COMPETITION AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
One of our proudest moments this year was seeing Ali Abbasi’s ‘The Apprentice’ selected for Cannes in competition for the Palm d’Or. The film saw its world premiere at the festival with the dedicated collaboration of our Canadian and Danish co-producers Daniel Bekerman (Scythia Films), Jacob Jarek (Profile Pictures), and Louis Tisné (Film Institute), alongside our incredible team of executive producers led by Amy Baer and our writer Gabriel Sherman. Witnessing the film’s debut on the iconic Palais des Festivals screen and its almost ten minute long standing ovation was an exhilarating experience and we were thrilled by its continuing success at festivals such as Telluride, Zurich, London BFI, and many more.
‘The Apprentice’ is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire, charting a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn. Though this was not the easiest of films to make or release, the tenacity and dedication of the team outweighed these challenges and it took almost $17 million at the box office internationally (as of December 2024). ‘The Apprentice’ is now available on Apple TV, Prime Video, Sky Store and many other streaming platforms.
BRING THEM DOWN - TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Chris Andrew’s directorial debut ‘Bring Them Down’ follows the escalating tensions of two feuding farming families in the west of Ireland, whose actions have increasingly devastating consequences. The film saw its world debut at TIFF, which featured not one, but two feature films of ours - inclusive of ‘The Apprentice.
The incredible cast includes Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott, Colm Meaney, and Nora-Jane Noone, who were all in attendance alongside writer-director Chris Andrews, our producers Ivana MacKinnon and Jacob Swan Hyam, and the team from Tailored Films. We are blown away by the glowing reviews from critics and audiences alike. Screen Daily described the film as a "grimly compelling drama", while The Telegraph praised Keoghan’s performance, and Rotten Tomatoes summarised the film as a "nearly pitch-black drama boosted by a strong cast, a solid script, and fundamentally sound directing."
Thanks to the support of Culture Ireland and Screen Ireland, our team was able to attend both Cannes and TIFF, making these achievements all the more special. ‘Bring Them Down’ will have its theatrical release on February 7th 2025.
LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
‘The Apprentice’ was honoured as one of the Headline Galas at the London Film Festival. Our incredible cast members Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova walked the red carpet alongside director Ali Abbasi and writer Gabriel Sherman, with some of our Irish cast members including Eoin Duffy and Valerie O’Connor, as well as representatives from Screen Ireland all in attendance for the premiere.
‘Bring Them Down’ also screened at the festival, with cast members Colm Meaney, Nora-Jane Noone, Aaron Heffernan-Doyle and Susan Lynch, producers Ivana MacKinnon and Jacob Swan Hyam, writer-director Chris Andrews and team Tailored all in attendance.
CORK FILM FESTIVAL
‘Bring Them Down’ celebrated its Irish premiere at the stunning Everyman theatre during the Cork Film Festival. We were delighted so many of our creative team joined us, including dialect coach Peadar Cox - who received a huge round of applause for his work on the film. Our gratitude extends to distributor Volta Pictures for organising such a memorable night.
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
Our festival journey for both was accompanied by remarkable recognition. presence at these festivals didn’t go unnoticed. ‘Bring Them Down’ won Best Picture in the Main Competition at Fantastic Fest, Best Screenplay at the Rome Film Festival, the Fipresci Critics Prize at the Mannheim Heidelberg Film Festival, and the prestigious Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director at the British Independent Film Awards.
‘The Apprentice’ has also secured two Golden Globe nominations in two of the best actor categories, and three nominations for Best Director, Best Lead Performance and Best Editing at the Independent Spirit Awards.
We are so excited for the talent involved and the recognition they are so justly deserving of.
LOUISE LIVES LARGE
Series 1 of our 8 x half hour YA drama series ‘Louise Lives Large’ premiered on RTÉ2 back in April to a highly positive response, eventually becoming the number 1 show on Canada’s Family Channel, where it remained in the top 10 for several months.
The series was created and written by Carol Walsh and co-written by Richie Conroy and Sian Ni Mhuiri. The show centres on newly cancer-free teen Louise Edgar, who gains back control of her life through the help of an anti-bucket ‘live large’ list of teen milestones she missed out on while sick with the help of her partner-in-crime Jess. Louise’s story of strength and resilience really resonated with our young audience and we are pleased to say we are now embarking on series 2. We cannot wait to see what’s in store for Louise in this next chapter, and to regroup with the amazing cast and crew!
UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS
Looking ahead, 2025 promises to be an exciting year with upcoming projects and new collaborations that will define the next chapter. We head into the new year with a bang, with two productions soon starting pre-production. The first being an exciting new feature film… watch this space! And the second being ‘Der Irland Krimi’ season 6, which begins filming next year - continuing our fruitful collaboration with Good-Friends GmbH.
DEVELOPMENT & TEAM NEWS
Several other projects on our development slate are gaining momentum.
Gothic period thriller ‘Night Town’, penned by David Turpin and directed by Imogen Murphy, is in financing stage and aiming for a late 2025 / early 2026 shoot date. New features from George Kane (‘Mondegreen’) and David Turpin (‘The Foundling’) are also in financing stage.
Our Irish-language teen drama series ‘Yesterday’s Girl/Ar Ais Arís’ received the highest award of funding from Coimisúin na Meán and continues its successful streak of financing following co-development funding from Creative Europe.
Development of ‘Louise Lives Large’ series 2 is underway and has secured support from the Canadian initiative Telus fund, with finance ongoing.
2024 also saw our team expand with the addition of Caitriona McCormack in the role of Junior Producer, who joined us earlier this year. Our Senior Producer Mairtin de Barra was also selected for ACE Series Special and took part in a hands-on workshop for experienced producers to gain invaluable insights to the changing landscapes of the TV market.
Several other projects are rallying towards key milestones, so we hope 2025 will be a busy and rewarding year for Tailored! Here’s a quick look at our highlights from the year:
In the spirit of the session, Tailored will be making a donation to the Irish Hospice Foundation. We feel so strongly about contributing to this important cause and hope our support makes an impact.
Lastly, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our collaborators, supporters, financiers, and audiences for the wild and wonderful year that was 2024. We have enjoyed every second of the new creative partnerships we have fostered and are excited to build upon them next year.
We hope that your 2025 is full of happiness, health, and above all else, peace.
Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh!
