American Animals

American Animals
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBart Layton
Written byBart Layton
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyOle Bratt Birkeland
Edited by
  • Nick Fenton
  • Chris Gill
  • Julian Hart
Music byAnne Nikitin
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • January 19, 2018 (2018-01-19) (Sundance)
  • June 1, 2018 (2018-06-01) (United States)
  • September 7, 2018 (2018-09-07) (United Kingdom)
Running time
116 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • United States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Box office$4.1 million[3]

American Animals is a 2018 docudrama heist film written and directed by Bart Layton. Starring Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, and Ann Dowd, it is an account of the Transylvania University book heist which took place at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky in 2004.[4] The film cuts between interview segments of the real-life people involved in the heist and actors playing out the same events.

American Animals premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2018. The film was theatrically released in the United States on June 1, 2018, by The Orchard and MoviePass Ventures.[5] Among other awards the film won the Junior Jury Award at The Montclair Film Festival. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, particularly for its screenplay, acting, use of unreliable narrators, and an unconventional storytelling structure that fused real-life characters and actors representing those characters.

  1. ^ "American Animals". Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Institute. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  2. ^ Lodge, Guy (January 19, 2018). "Film Review: 'American Animals'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  3. ^ "American Animals (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on June 25, 2022. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
  4. ^ Lee, Chris (June 1, 2018). "The Real-life Heist Caper Behind American Animals". Vulture. New York Media. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  5. ^ Debruge, Peter (November 29, 2017). "Sundance Film Festival Unveils Full 2018 Features Lineup". Variety. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.