After all the dashed expectations of last year, the 2024 Oscars have only modest Irish interest, with Robbie Ryan in the frame once again for Best Cinematography, on Poor Things, and Ed Guiney of Irish company Element among the producers of that film. And then of course there’s Cillian Murphy, surely the frontrunner in this year’s Best Actor award for his fearlessly committed performance in Oppenheimer. Our fingers are crossed on his behalf.
The buzz about Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers has been intense, particularly as it happens to co-star Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal as troubled men who fall in love. Both actors have been nominated for awards, and Andrew Scott may yet receive an Oscar nod.
Anyone who knows their hip hop will have heard of Kneecap, a west Belfast trio who rap as gaeilge and espouse a rousing brand of free-living republicanism. This comic drama, which charts the band’s creation, is unlikely to appear before the summer but is already causing quite a stir a US release now seems likely. What our American friends will make of it all remains to be seen, but Rich Peppiatt’s film offers refreshingly irreverent insights into matters northern, and is very funny indeed.