Over the last few months, particularlyfollowing the 2023 Oscar nominationsthat were unveiled on Jan. 24, Irish film and television seem to be amid a worldwide resurgence.
This is primarily due to the outstanding nine nominations that Martin McDonagh’sBanshees of Inisherinamassed, including a clean sweep of the Oscar’s performance categories, with nominations going out to the entirety of the film’s main cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan. In addition toBanshees, Irish actor Paul Mescal received a best actor nomination for his role inAftersun. Meanwhile, the Irish language filmThe Quiet Girlreceived a nomination for Best International Feature Film.
Bansheessimilarly garnered 10 nominations from the British Academy Film Awards, winning awards for Best British Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Keoghan), and Best Supporting Actress (Condon) at the Feb. 19 awards. In a recent interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip acknowledged that half of the nominees for Best Actor were Irish. “Although it wasn’t one of our targets,” she added.
Irish supremacy continued withAn Irish Goodbye, the only short film of the year to receive a nomination from both the Oscar’s and BAFTA. Outside the awards season, Sharon Horgan’s dark-comedyBad Sistershas received plenty of buzz since it premiered on Apple TV+ last fall, and the musical dramaFlora and Sondebuted to high acclaim at Sundance.
Flora and Son,coming from writer/director John Carney (Once,Sing Street), sparked a bidding war following its Sundance debut, a war eventually won by Apple, who purchased the project for upwards of $20 million. Irish actress Eve Hewson, who stars in bothBad SistersandFlora and Son,is well on her way to full-fledged stardom as a result of the recent buzz surrounding the projects.
Related:2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards: All Quiet on the Western Front Wins Best Picture
Flora and SonProducer Suggests Pandemic Motivated Recent Irish Film Boost
When asked whether the recent boom surroundingIrish film and televisionwas simply a coincidence or if something deeper was going on,Flora and Sonproducer Rebecca O’Flanagan of Treasure Entertainment toldTHR, “I think it’s a bit of both.”
O’Flanagan went on to suggest that there was some “buoyed up energy” following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to several high-profile projects coming to the big screen all at once. But, on the other hand, O’Flanagan credits some of the current success of Irish film and TV to the “prolonged and sustained investment” in the Irish industry from bodies like Screen Ireland and Treasure Entertainment.
“Without it, I just don’t think we’d have been able to get to the other side and have this content in place," O’Flanagan added.
O’Flanagan, who was five weeks into the production for the TV thriller seriesSmotherwhen the first 2020 lockdown shut down filming, credits Screen Ireland with supporting Treasure to continue developing its slate, includingFlora and Son,“in the hope that we would come out the other side.”
