Picture: Sony Pictures Classic
The December 2024 lineup is shaking up, and we’ve just learned that Kneecap, the Irish-language comedy-drama about the Belfast-based rap trio Kneecap, will make its streaming debut on Netflix in the United States courtesy of Sony Pictures’ first window deal. The film will be available on Netflix for eighteen months beginning December 2nd, 2024.
The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year and was the first Irish-language film to do so. It has also been submitted as Ireland’s entry for the forthcoming 97th Academy Awards.
The film comes from writer and director Rich Peppiatt, best known for films like One Rogue Reporter, Backseat Driver, and Chasing Robert Barker. It tells the origin story of a rap group that became one of the figureheads in an attempt to save the Irish language, which has dwindled over the years. Members of that group are acting in the film, including Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, DJ Próvai, Josie Walker, Simone Kirby, and a special appearance by Michael Fassbender, who has Irish and German roots.
Certified Fresh on RottenTomatoes, the film premiered in select theaters over the summer with rave reviews praising the authenticity of the film. Filipe Freitas for Always Good Movies said in his review, “The film’s sensationalist execution feels like a pastiche of Trainspotting (1996) and 8 Mile (2002), with a dash of Guy Ritchie’s gangster flair thrown in the mix.”
Kneecap arrives on Netflix through the Sony Pictures first window deal struck back in 2021, when the majority of Sony Pictures and its subsidiaries came to Netflix following its theatrical window for eighteen months before releasing on Hulu or Disney+.
Because Sony Pictures Classics only carries the movie in the United States, we cannot predict when other regions of Netflix will carry it, if they will ever do so. Curzon Film and Wildcard Distribution own the rights to the movie in the United Kingdom and Ireland, respectively. In the UK, the movie was licensed to Prime Video.
It’s been a busy year for new Sony Pictures Classics movies on Netflix, with a string of excellent movies hitting the US service throughout the year. Recent highlights include Daddio and We Grown Now, with more to come throughout 2025 and beyond.
Hat tip to our friends at WhenToStream.com for first reporting on the streaming debut of the movie.
For more on what’s coming up on Netflix throughout December 2024, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix. The only other SVOD debut we’ve got scheduled for December so far is the Megan Fox movie Subservience.
Are you looking forward to checking out Kneecap when it drops on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.
