Twisters star Daisy Edgar-Jones and CODA star Emilia Jones will topline a period revenge thriller currently titled Bad Bridgets, which is serving as the follow-up feature for Rich Peppiatt, the rising director behind British hit Kneecap.
FilmNation will be handling international sales, and WME Independent is on for domestic sales for the title, which will be officially introduced at November’s American Film Market.
LuckyChap and Coup d’Etat, the latter being Peppiatt’s production banner, are producing. The project is far enough along that is has Oscar winning production designer James Price (Poor Things) and costume designer Kate Hawley (Crimson Peak) on board. The producers are eyeing a shoot in Northern Ireland and Ireland in spring 2026.
The script was inspired by the book Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem, and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women by Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick and has been developed with the support of Belfast’s Queens University.
The book looked at the world of Bad Bridgets, a swath of Irish women emigrants that were deemed troublemakers, noting that for a time Irish women outnumbered Irish men in prison (it didn’t help that some of the women locked up were in there for “stubbornness.”)
Per the producers, the script’s story begins when a mysterious letter sets a young woman on a perilous journey from famine-ravaged Ireland to 19th century New York, where she joins the ranks of Irish Bridgets creating mayhem in the city.
Peppiatt’s Kneecap became the most nominated debut in BAFTA history, while also claiming seven British Independent Film Awards, five IFTAs and breakthrough British/Irish filmmaker at the London Critics Circle. He is repped by WME, Anonymous Content and MMB Creative.
Daisy Edgar Jones is repped by UTA, B-Side Management, and Sloane Offer.
Emilia Jones is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and UK’s Artist Rights Group.
Running from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Upper Dharamshala, DIFF has established itself as one of India’s premier showcases for independent cinema, drawing global filmmakers and audiences to its non-competitive platform.
Ghaywan’s “Homebound,” adapted from a 2020 New York Times article by Basharat Peer, follows two childhood friends from a North Indian village who aspire to become police officers. The film, which debuted at Cannes, explores how mounting pressures strain their friendship as they pursue respect and opportunity.
The festival continues its partnership with Sydney Film Festival, welcoming two Australian films and their filmmakers: Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s queer sci-fi “Lesbian Space Princess” and Gabrielle Brady’s “The Wolves Always Come at Night,” Australia’s Oscar submission.
Programming highlights include Bhutan’s Oscar entry “I, The Song” by Dechen Roder; Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Cactus Pears”; Rich Peppiatt’s Irish-language “Kneecap“; and Raoul Peck’s documentary “Orwell 2+2=5.”
The lineup also features Spanish director Carla Simón’s “Romeria”; Hlynur Pálmason’s Cannes entry “The Love That Remains”; Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s “Cutting Through Rocks”; Prabhash Chandra’s “Alaav”; and Kunsang Kyirong’s “100 Sunset.”
The festival will host a masterclass with acclaimed Indian filmmaker Kiran Rao.
Closing night belongs to Anuparna Roy’s “Songs of Forgotten Trees,” which won the Horizons award for best director at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. The Mumbai-set drama follows a migrant actor and sex worker who sublets her apartment to a call-center worker, forming a fragile bond.
Programming director Bina Paul has curated a lineup that includes Andrey Tarkovsky’s son presenting the documentary “Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer” in person, featuring rare archival footage of the legendary Russian filmmaker.
Dharamshala is best known internationally as the seat of the Dalai Lama, who has been based there since being exiled from Tibet in 1959. The festival directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam are filmmakers in their own right. Their chronicles of the Tibetan condition including 2005’s “Dreaming Lhasa,” 2010’s “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” and 2018’s “The Sweet Requiem” have received considerable festival play, including at Toronto and San Sebastian. The pair’s last venture, one of the shorts in Tibetan anthology film “State of Statelessness,” premiered at Busan in 2024.
“We never set out to become one of the most prominent independent festivals in the country. We simply believed that meaningful cinema deserved a home in the mountains,” say Sarin and Sonam. “DIFF has grown organically over 14 years — not through flash or hype, but through the passion of filmmakers, the trust of our audiences, and the community that returns year after year.”
DIFF remains deliberately non-competitive, prioritizing dialogue over awards. The festival credits tech partner PictureTime’s inflatable digital theaters with bringing independent cinema to the remote mountain location.
The federal immigration minister is facing increasing pressure to clarify whether the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap is indeed banned from entering Canada, or if the Liberal official who announced the move was approved to make that assertion in a contentious social media post.
In a letter to Immigration Minister Lena Diab on Thursday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the party’s immigration critic, urged Diab to say whether the group is indeed banned after the minister and other officials have repeatedly refused to answer questions on the case for almost two weeks.
The band says it has yet to receive any official notice about an entry ban or denial of their electronic visa authorizations.
“Canadians and visitors to Canada deserve to know that they are not subject to arbitrary and politicized weaponization of public policy for political purposes,” Kwan wrote.
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“We need to rebuild integrity into the system in this time of misinformation.”
Liberal MP Vince Gasparro, the parliamentary secretary for combating crime, announced on Sept. 19 “on behalf of the Government of Canada” that the band’s members had been deemed ineligible for entry ahead of scheduled concerts this month, based “on the advice of our officials.”
Kwan wants Diab to answer if the officials Gasparro referenced are in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and if she or other IRCC officials authorized Gasparro to speak on their behalf publicly.
The letter also asks if Kneecap were ever formally banned from entering Canada or if they are permitted to enter, and if the Prime Minister’s Office or any other government officials or agencies were involved in approving Gasparro’s announcement.
Canada bars hip-hop group ‘Kneecap’ over allegations of supporting terror groups
Kwan pressed Diab on some of those questions during question period on Thursday, but Diab declined to directly answer.
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“If no one authorized it, can the minister advise what formal action will be taken to address this serious misrepresentation of authority? Canadians deserve to know,” Kwan said.
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Diab responded by reading nearly verbatim a statement IRCC sent to Global News earlier this week — a message that has evolved in real time — that did not comment on Kneecap’s specific case.
“Persons seeking to come to Canada must meet eligibility and admissibility requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” Diab said.
“Each case is assessed individually. Entry to Canada may be refused for a number of reasons. Individuals whose electronic travel application has been declined can re-apply by doing an eTA once they address the reasons that it has been refused.”
Kneecap’s manager has told Global News the band has heard nothing from the Canadian government about members’ eTAs being denied beyond Gasparro’s video, and has not received guidance on their current status since.
A spokesperson for Kwan said she intends to submit a written order paper question on the issue, which will require the government to respond in writing within 45 days.
Should a probe ask whether MP ‘lied?’
Kwan’s letter adds to the pressure on the Liberal government to explain why no further explanation or official notice has been provided to the band or the public since.
“I would suspect that in any other workplace you would be reprimanded for that. And in this case, you wouldn’t be a parliamentary secretary anymore,” she said.
Kwan’s spokesperson said she would request a study at either the House of Commons ethics or immigration committee, but she will need a sitting member to support her call. The NDP has no permanent membership on House committees after losing official party status in the last federal election.
A spokesperson for Gasparro’s office said he had “no further comment” in an email Wednesday and deferred questions to IRCC, after making a similar comment last Friday.
Diab did not stop to answer questions from reporters on Kneecap’s case while heading into the Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s office has also deferred questions to IRCC, and the Prime Minister’s Office has not responded to requests for comment.
Irish hip hop group ‘Kneecap’ banned from Canada for supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
In his video announcement on Sept. 19, Gasparro cited a U.K. terrorism-related charge against Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh as a reason for denying entry to Canada. A British judge tossed out the criminal case last Friday, but no one in the government has said if the apparent entry ban remains in place.
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The charge, which was dismissed after a British court said it had been laid too late, came after authorities had alleged Óg Ó hAnnaidh waved a flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah during a London concert last year.
Hezbollah is a listed terrorist organization in both the U.K. and Canada.
Kneecap has accused critics of trying to silence the band because of its support for the Palestinian cause throughout the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza. The band says it doesn’t support Hezbollah and Hamas, nor condone violence.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Jewish advocacy organization B’nai Brith Canada, which had advocated for the ban, have praised the government for Gasparro’s announcement.
Kneecap will livestream a concert from a secret location in Ireland on Friday, October 10, as a sort of makeup show for their recently canceled U.S. tour. As well as broadcasting online from 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (at this link), the stream will play at a ticketed showing at Kings Theatre, in Brooklyn, New York, that night.
This week, Kneecap released “Sayōnara,” a new collaboration with Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll, with a video starring Derry Girls actor Jamie Lee O’Donnell. Its release followed the cancellation of their sold-out, 15-date tour of the United States, apparently due to Mo Chara’s forthcoming court appearance in London on a strongly disputed terror charge. Kneecap’s four Canadian shows are set to go ahead, as are their European dates.
