The film, based on K. L. Going's young adult novel, will have a late summer theatrical release in the U.S., The Hollywood Reporter said.

Outsider Pictures has acquired international sales rights to Matthew Lillard’s directorial debut, Fat Kid Rules the World, which will have its market premiere in Cannes.

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Spotlight Feature at the recent South By Southwest Film Festival, where the movie had its world premiere, Fat Kid was adapted from K. L. Going’s young adult novel by Michael M. B. Galvin and Peter Speakman. It centers around an overweight and suicidal seventeen-year-old, played by Jacob Wysocki, who’s saved by a high school dropout and street musician, played by Matt O’Leary. The cast also includes Billy Campbell, Lili Simmons and Dylan Arnold. It was produced by Rick Rosenthal and Nick Morton.

“It’s a film that I think everyone can identify with,” said Paul Hudson, co-founder of Outsider Pictures, a production, distribution and sales company with a special focus in the U.S. in the distribution of Latin American films.

Indie production company Whitewater Films is planning a late summer theatrical release in the U.S.