''Bird'' is a 2024

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Andrea Arnold Andrea Patricia Arnold OBE (born 5 April 1961) is an English filmmaker and former actress. She won an Academy Award for her short film ''Wasp'' in 2005. Her feature films include '' Red Road'' (2006), '' Fish Tank'' (2009) and '' American Hon ...

and starring Nykiya Adams,

Barry Keoghan Barry Keoghan ( ; born 18 October 1992) is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland ...

, and

Franz Rogowski Franz Rogowski (; born 2 February 1986) is a German actor. He has appeared in films directed by Michael Haneke, Christian Petzold, Andrea Arnold, and Terrence Malick. Life and career Franz Rogowski was born in 1986 in Freiburg im Breisgau, West ...

. The film had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2024. The film was theatrically released in the United States and the United Kingdom by

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

on 8 November 2024. It received positive reviews from critics and was named one of the top 10 independent films of 2024 by the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...

Plot

Bailey is a twelve year old girl who lives in a run down building with her father, Bug, and half brother, Hunter. One day, Bug announces his engagement to Kayleigh, a woman he has known for three months with their wedding on the following Saturday. Bailey, in shock and frustration, claims she will not attend and storms off. Later that day, Hunter tells Bailey he is in a vigilante group with his friends. Intrigued, Bailey follows them and witnesses the group of boys storm into a house and threaten a man with a box cutter. Police are quickly called and Bailey escapes into an empty field where she falls asleep for the night. The next morning, she is greeted by a mysterious man who calls himself Bird. She follows him to an apartment complex where he searches for a woman who lived there sometime ago, but has little luck finding her. Bailey leaves after this, but notices Bird on the roof of the building before Bug arrives to take her home and grounds her for being out all night. Bailey learns that Bird was looking for his mother who lived in the apartment complex, and that long ago she disappeared when he was a child. Warming to Bird, Bailey suggests her mother, Peyton, could help Bird as she lived in the complex years ago. At Peyton’s house, Bailey and Bird inquire about the residents, but are interrupted by the attitude of her live-in boyfriend, Skate. An argument ensues between Bailey and Skate, leading Bailey to film him, with Skate threatening to kill Peyton if Bailey shows the footage to the authorities. Despite this, Peyton is able to remember Bird's father's name. Bailey sends the video to Hunter, promising Bailey he and his group will attack Skate in order to rescue her mother along with her half-siblings. Later, Hunter requests Bailey’s assistance in delivering a note to his girlfriend Moon asking that the two run away to Scotland, due to her family’s disapproval of her recently discovered pregnancy. On the way, a crow follows Bailey and helps her slip the note past Moon’s family. The next day as Hunter and his friends plan their attack, Bailey takes her half-siblings out for the day to avoid the incident. Bird reappears to help Bailey and the kids to the beach where he attempts to track down his father. When they find his apartment, the man living there denies ever having a son to Bird and Bailey. Later, the man recants his denial and admits to Bird that he was with Bird's mother and they did have a boy, but left shortly after, unable to deal with her poor mental state. Bailey consoles a tearful Bird as the group heads back home. Soon after their return, Skate attempts to barge into their house. Peyton is unsuccessful in stopping him, leading to him assaulting her. Bailey attempts to stop him, but Skate knocks her unconscious. Bird re-enters the apartment and also attempts to defend Peyton, but Skate bashes his head in. While recovering, Bailey witnesses Bird transform into a creature with feathers, large wings, and bird-like eyes. He fights Skate again, this time taking him outside, where Bird knocks him unconscious, grabs him with talons and flies off with his body. The next morning Bailey discovers that Hunter has left home. She informs Bug and the two run to the train station and discover him alone, devastated that Moon did not follow through with his plans. Bug comforts Hunter, telling him he is too young for parenthood. The three of them ride back home and attend the wedding of Bug and Kayleigh, with Bailey in better spirits about the ceremony. During the reception, Bird shows up unannounced and hugs Bailey goodbye. As he leaves, Bailey's eyes are revealed to be bird-like in the same manner that Bird's eyes were.

Cast

* Nykiya Adams as Bailey *

as Bug, Bailey's father *

as Bird * Jason Buda as Hunter, Bailey's half-brother *

Jasmine Jobson Jasmine Jobson (born 9 May 1995) is a British actress. She is best known for portraying Jaq in the television crime drama series ''Top Boy'' (2019–2023), and for portraying Lily in the feature film ''Surge'' (2020). Other credits include '' No ...

as Peyton, Bailey's mother * Frankie Box as Kayleigh, Bug's fiancée *

James Nelson-Joyce James Nelson-Joyce (born 1989) is an English actor, known for playing the tough guy or villainous characters, who has had roles in '' Mount Pleasant'' (2016), ''Little Boy Blue'' (2017), '' The Nest'' (2020), ''Time'' (2021), '' The Outlaws'' ( ...

as Skate, Peyton's boyfriend * Joanne Matthews as Debs * Sarah Beth Harber as Dionne's Mum * Jason Williamson as Fred

Production

Keoghan reportedly came aboard the project in May 2023 after leaving the cast of

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

epic ''

Gladiator II ''Gladiator II'' is a 2024 historical drama, historical epic film directed and produced by Ridley Scott that is a sequel to Gladiator (2000 film), ''Gladiator'' (2000). Written by David Scarpa based on a story he wrote with Peter Craig, the fi ...

''. That same month

was revealed to be in talks to join the cast. Principal photography took place in the south of England with filming locations including

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom *Ashford, Kent, a town **B ...

and

Bean, Kent Bean is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located 4.4 miles south east of Dartford and 5.4 miles south west of Gravesend. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1643. The Area The parish is bounded on t ...

in June 2023. In July 2023 filming took place on the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the districts of England, local government district of Borough ...

. Robbie Ryan served as the cinematographer. Letters were also dropped to residents of Kent's letter boxes by the film's location manager Mark Lambert. The soundtrack was scored by British electronic artist

Burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

. It also featured tracks by Fontaines D.C.,

Sleaford Mods Sleaford Mods are an English post-punk music duo, formed in 2007 in Nottingham. The band features vocalist Jason Williamson and, since 2012, instrumentalist Andrew Fearn. They are known for their abrasive, minimalist musical style and embittere ...

and

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

Release

Cast and crew of Bird during its premiere at 2024 Cannes Film Festival

''Bird'' was presented at the European Film Market as part of the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

, with Cornerstone Films handling sales. The film was selected in the main competition at the 2024

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, where it premiered on 16 May 2024. Prior to,

acquired UK and Irish distribution rights to the film from Cornerstone, then subsequently purchasing the distribution rights for North America and Turkey. The film will also play at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

in September 2024. It was released in theaters by Mubi in the United Kingdom and the United States on November 8, 2024, with a streaming release in Turkey on a later date.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 131 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Director Andrea Arnold strikes a coming-of-age chord through Nykiya Adams' moving performance, marrying fantasy and reality to the dizzying end." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 74 out of 100, based on 36 critic reviews indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Accolades

The film received seven nominations at the

British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early Nov ...

in November 2024. Robbie Ryan was nominated for Best Cinematography at the

Irish Film and Television Awards The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) is an all-Ireland organisation focused on film and television. It has about 1000 members, and is based in Dublin, with branches in London and Los Angeles. The IFTA now holds separate ceremonies for the ...

in January 2025.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bird (upcoming film) 2024 films 2024 drama films 2024 independent films 2020s American films 2020s British films 2020s English-language films 2020s French films 2020s German films American drama films Ad Vitam (company) films Arte France Cinéma films BBC Film films British drama films British Film Institute films English-language French films English-language German films Films directed by Andrea Arnold Films shot in Kent Films shot in 16 mm film French drama films German drama films 2024 LGBTQ-related films American LGBTQ-related films British LGBTQ-related films French LGBTQ-related films German LGBTQ-related films 2020s LGBTQ-related drama films