Four Oscar Nominations for Irish Talent
The Irish film ONCE has received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song Award along with nominations for Irish actress Saoirse Ronan for Best Supporting Actress in ATONEMENT, Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor in THERE WILL BE BLOOD and Irish cinematographer Seamus McGarvey who has also been nominated for his work on ATONEMENT.Irish film ONCE directed and written by John Carney has received an Academy Award© nomination for Best Original Song for the song ‘Falling Slowly' written by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The song is up against three songs from the Disney hit film ENCHANTED and one song from AUGUST RUSH directed by Kirsten Sheridan.
The Irish film ONCE stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in the leading roles and is a modern-day musical set on the streets of Dublin telling the story of a busker and an immigrant, who fall in love over an eventful week, as they write, rehearse and record a number of songs.
"ONCE is a film made as a modern day musical, so to receive the Best Original Song Oscar nomination is perfection and a tremendous validation of the film" said John Carney, Director, ONCE. "When I first heard the song ‘Falling Slowly' I thought this song is going to be massive and it was a luxury to have a song like this in my film. My life is determined by music and it will often be a three minute song that will decide my fate in this world. Songs are so emotional and sometimes a song is the perfect way to tell a story."
Simon Perry, Chief Executive, Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board said "Once again another major award nomination for ONCE! What this one small film is doing for Ireland is indeed phenomenal."
Producer Martina Niland commented "The international response to ONCE has been overwhelming positive. The film has picked up a host of awards but an Oscar nomination is the highlight of what has been a great year for a small Irish film."
ONCE won the Audience Award for World Cinema at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival after it was discovered by Sundance programmers at the Galway Film Festival. It went on to receive US distribution by Fox Searchlight last year and has also won a host of awards including the Golden Tomato Award which pays tribute to the best-reviewed films of the previous year as determined by the website Rottentomatoes.com. ONCE garnered an amazing 98% favourable ranking. The film has also been nominated for two Evening Standard Awards in the Most Promising Newcomer and Best Score categories.
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have already scooped the Best Song Award at The Critics Choice Awards for "Falling Slowly" beating songs from the musical Hairspray and films American Gangster, Into The Wild and Enchanted to win the award. "Falling Slowly" has also been nominated in the Best Song category in the 50th Annual GRAMMY® Awards, where the ONCE soundtrack itself has been nominated for the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture category also. The soundtrack also recently won the LA Film Critics Associations Award for Best Music.
Produced by Samson Films with funding from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board, it was listed as one of the top ten independent films of the year by the US National Board of Review and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the prestigious Film Independent Spirit awards and has been short listed for the 20th European Film Awards. It scooped the top award at the 2Morrow Festival in Moscow which came with a $100,000 as well as winning the Story Award at the festival.
Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for her role in Atonement, as Briony Tallis, a 13 year old fledgling writer who irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's (Keira Knightley) lover (James McAvoy) of a crime he did not commit. Ronan has already won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the film. This role also earned Saoirse a nomination for Best Young Actress at the Critic Choice Awards and a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama at the Satellite Awards. In 2008, she'll appear with Bill Murray in the action-fantasy City of Ember and star as a con artist in Death Defying Acts alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones. She also has the lead role in Peter Jackson's film version of The Lovely Bones.
Seamus McGarvey is one of Ireland's leading cinematographers whose credits include Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, starring Nicholas Cage, The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman, for which he earned the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Technical/Artistic Achievement; the action-adventure film Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz, for which he won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Cinematography; Along Came Polly, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston; High Fidelity, directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Cusack; Wit, starring Emma Thompson, directed by Mike Nichols and Enigma, directed by Michael Apted.
Daniel Day-Lewis is one of Ireland's leading actors and has performed in numerous stage plays and films that have gained him an Academy Award, two BAFTA awards, and five Golden Globe nominations winning his first Golden Award last week for There will be Blood. He is also nominated for the upcoming SAGS for his role in There Will Be Blood and has previously won this award for Gangs of New York.