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Lisa Barros D'sa and Glenn Leyburn join Outsider
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The directing duo Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Leyburn have joined Outsider for commercial representation.
The directing duo Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’sa have joined Outsider for commercial representation.
The married couple are known for their versatility and storytelling ability that has seen them labelled by The Irish Times as "the most important contemporary filmmakers working from Northern Ireland."
With four features to their name, Leyburn and D’sa have gone from strength to strength in demonstrating their ability in taking a story and elevating it far beyond expectations and its perceived emotional impact. They started with Cherrybomb in 2009, starring Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon, before releasing the critically acclaimed Good Vibrations about the 1970s Belfast punk scene and punk icon Terri Hooley. It swept the awards circuit and won BBC and Guardian top critic Mark Kermode’s Kermode Award for Best Film in 2013. In 2020 The Irish Times listed it as number 19 in "The 50 best Irish films ever made.”
In 2019, Ordinary Love, starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville, told a deeply moving story about a couple adjusting to a sudden breast cancer diagnosis. It had a prestigious Gala Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, garnering rave reviews, described by The Hollywood Reporter “As quiet and thoughtfully composed as a Dutch master’s painting”. It won IFTAs for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor, alongside several other nominations, to further cement the directing duo's position as two of the most exciting and forward thinking filmmakers in the UK.
And if you haven’t been living under a rock you’ll have seen posters left, right and centre for Saipan, a biopic starring rising star Éanna Hardwicke as Ireland captain Roy Keane and Steve Coogan as Ireland manager Mick McCarthy based on the events and fallout which galvanised the world on the eve of the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Released in U.K. cinemas on the 23rd January, Saipan again premiered in Toronto and like all their other films has received critical acclaim from the likes of Screen Daily, The Times, The Guardian and Deadline and brought Leyburn and D’sa’s work to more mainstream audiences.
Otis Denison, EP at Outsider has been a long time fan of their work and had this to say. “Ever since I heard about Saipan I just had to talk to them and hear their story. The 2002 World Cup was the first one I remember and probably one of the few I actually thought England could win (what a naive and innocent boy I was). What I remember very clearly from that tournament though was that iconic footage of Roy Keane walking his dog after storming out of the Irish camp and potentially jeopardising his reputation forever to those who used to sing his name from the rooftops.
Glenn and Lisa invited me to a private screening of the film several weeks ago and it was fantastic. It’s rare you see a story told so convincingly and emphatically in 90 minutes, a lost art and skill in a time where directors think we can’t live without their four hour cut. And that’s exactly what we’re always on the look out for at Outsider; filmmakers who can tell a story quickly because what’s 90 minutes to 30 seconds! Better still, Glenn and Lisa are absolutely charming, addicted to their craft and seriously talented. It’s an honour to have them working with us and I cannot wait to see what we can do together.”
Leyburn and D’Sa were equally excited when talking about the prospect of working with Outsider. “We’re excited to be joining Outsider. Alongside our feature film work, we’re looking forward to bringing that dramatic storytelling energy into the commercial space and collaborating with such a bold, creative team. We always look to tell stories with wit, emotion and visual scale and the commercials space is somewhere we look to do just that. The response to Saipan has been really special, it’s been a real pleasure showing the film to audiences around the world and we’re keen to push on whether it’s on our next feature or on a commercial with Outsider.”
