Irish filmmakers had a record 14 Oscar nominations this year. They only walked away with two wins. One of which was the Best Live Action Short Film award for An Irish Goodbye.
The last year has been an incredible one for Ireland on the big screen. Irish movies, actors and filmmakers were nominated for a record 14 awards at this year’s Oscars.
An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) made history in itself for being the first-ever Irish language film nominated for an Oscar award.
Ireland walked away with one major win last night – An Irish Goodbye won the award for Best Live-Action Short Film. Furthermore, Irish animator Richard Baneham won the Best Visual Effects award for Avatar: The Way of Water.
The Oscars 2023 – An Irish Goodbye takes home the gold
The Dolby Theatre in the heart of Hollywood, Los Angeles, was lit up last night, 12 March, for the annual star-studded event that is the Oscars.
The 95th year of the event saw Irish short film An Irish Goodbye take home the gold for Best Live Action Short Film.
The acceptance speech by filmmakers Tom Berkeley and Ross White and crew Seamus O’Hara and James Martin was nothing short of memorable.
Ross White said, “Thank you to everyone back home in Northern Ireland, you helped us make this film”.
When he passed over the mic to Tom Berkely, he decided to use the remainder of their speech time, which is just 45 seconds, to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to star of the film, James Martin.
With that, the filmmakers led the entire auditorium of A-list celebrities in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to James.
An Irish Goodbye – what the movie is all about
An Irish Goodbye is a 2022 black comedy short film produced and directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White.
Starring James Martin and Seamus O’Hara, the movie follows the story of two estranged brothers reuniting after their mother’s untimely death.
Shot on location in Northern Ireland, Turlough (O’Hara) returns home with the plan of selling the family farm. His brother Lorcan (Martin), who has Down’s Syndrome, isn’t too pleased with this plan.
Lorcan refuses to leave the farm until Turlough helps him complete their mother’s bucket list that he found. This results in darkly comedic but ultimately heartfelt twists and turns.
Irish nominations – the ones that got away
It was hoped that Irish talent would take home a handful of awards last night, but alas, An Irish Goodbye was fated to be the only one.
Despite nine nominations overall, The Banshees of Inisherin, unfortunately, took home no awards. While Colin Farrell was up for the Best Actor award, this went to Brendan Fraser for The Whale.
Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan were both nominated for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award but lost out to Ke Huy Quan for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
An Cailín Ciúin lost out to the WWI epic directed by Edward Berger, All Quiet on the Western Front, for Best International Film.
While several movies missed out on success, we can’t underestimate the importance of the win for An Irish Goodbye for the filmmakers themselves and for Ireland.
