Film-making has been described as the art of turning money into light and then, occasionally, turning it back into money again. From initial conception to final completion, the process of producing a film can be arduous, expensive and technically complex. Few screenplays make it into production. Most of those that do fail to find an audience. Resilience and self-belief are as much a part of any successful career as creative or technical excellence.
Which is why the latest strong Irish showing amid the dazzle and glitz of this year’s Academy Awards is so worthy of celebration. It was no flash in the pan. Last year The Banshees of Inisherin received nine nominations, including four for Irish actors, while An Cailín Ciúin’s nomination broke new ground for Irish-language cinema and An Irish Goodbye was named best short drama.
On Sunday night, for the third time, Dublin-based Element Pictures arrived with multiple nominations. The company left with four awards for Poor Things, its latest collaboration with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. Element’s success is a tribute to the skill of producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, but also to the ongoing support they and other Irish production companies have received via State agencies and tax incentives that have enabled indigenous talent to develop and flourish since the 1990s.
Attention this year has focused rightly on Cillian Murphy, who becomes only the second Irishman to receive a Best Actor award. Murphy’s success is just reward for a compelling performance as Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s sweeping portrait of the father of the atomic bomb. It is the highlight so far of a career that has taken him from working with the ground-breaking Corcadorca theatre company via The Wind That Shakes the Barley to Batman and Peaky Blinders. The Corkman now stands at the forefront of a golden generation of internationally acclaimed Irish film acting talent that includes Saoirse Ronan, Andrew Scott, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and many more.
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Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman famously observed that when it comes to understanding what makes a successful film, “nobody knows anything”. But it is actually quite clear where the current health of Irish film-making derives from. Trailblazers such as Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan emerged from the country’s more established cultural traditions of literature and theatre. Their early successes were followed by successive generations of film-makers, technicians and performers who benefited from new training courses, acting schools and funding supports. From the animated features of Cartoon Saloon to the new wave of Irish-language films, the flowering of a confident cinema culture that speaks to both local and international audiences is one of modern Ireland’s true success stories.