Vertigo Releasing has picked up U.K. theatrical rights to The State of Us, the British coming-of-age comedy that premiered in main competition at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film is now set for a U.K. cinema release in 2027, ahead of its Monday screening at the Rome Film Festival.
The acquisition gives a small Yorkshire-shot debut a clear theatrical path, even though no box office, budget or screen-count figures have been made public. For distributors and producers, the interest is in the timing: the deal was announced between two festival moments.
A debut feature with local roots
Directed by Jake Harvey and Ollie Gardner and written by Harvey, the film follows Frankie, who breaks his dying best friend Taylor out of a hospice for their annual ritual of watching fireworks from a favourite hilltop. Over one night, the outing spirals into chaos and the friendship reaches a breaking point.
Samuel Bottomley and Callum Scott Howells lead the cast, with Safia Oakley-Green, Seamus O’Hara, Sunetra Sarker and Frances Barber in supporting roles. Tom Ogden, frontman of indie band Blossoms, composed the score.
The deal mechanics
Vertigo Releasing will handle the U.K. theatrical release in 2027. Circus Studios is managing worldwide sales. The film is presented by Noughty Pictures in association with Screen Yorkshire, and produced by Restless Pictures and Crossday Productions in association with 4 8 Fourteen Films and Circus Studios. Post-production was handled by Playhouse Studios.
- Festival premiere: Edinburgh International Film Festival, main competition, earlier this year.
- Sales moment: Rome Film Festival screening on Monday, after the acquisition news.
- Release window: U.K. cinemas in 2027; no date or screen count has been disclosed.
Why the calendar matters
For ScreenStat readers, the story is a case of festival momentum being converted into a concrete theatrical commitment. A distributor is not waiting for box office evidence or a streaming auction; it is reserving a local release year before the film’s market run is complete.
That gives the producers and sales agent a public signal for other territories: U.K. theatrical is in place, and the film can now be positioned as a proven festival title with a specialty release plan. For media planners and exhibition buyers, a 2027 date means the title is being given room to build word of mouth through festival reviews and talent-led promotion before a theatrical campaign.
It also suggests Vertigo sees enough audience specificity in a Yorkshire-set coming-of-age story to justify cinema placement, even in a market where many small British films go directly to digital or free TV. What remains unknown is the commercial target: no release date, screen count or marketing budget has been made public. That makes this a positioning story rather than a numbers story.
The next test is whether the Rome screening and subsequent markets produce additional territory deals. For indie teams, the practical lesson is to treat festival and market adjacency as a runway, not a single event.
Source: Variety
