The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) has announced the 2020 IFTA Nominations for the Irish Academy Awards across 25 categories in Film and Drama.
The 2020 Ceremony
The Academy is currently finalising plans for a bespoke virtual 2020 Awards Ceremony scheduled for September with full details to be announced shortly. The Academy has also confirmed that due to Covid-19 restrictions there will be no physical IFTA Awards Ceremony until April 2021, in keeping with best international practice across Awards ceremonies worldwide.
Nominations have been shortlisted by Irish Academy Members alongside a specialist Jury panel of industry experts from around the world.
Best Film
The Best Film Nominees this year have been split into two categories – Film 2019 and Film 2020, while other categories have been expanded from 4 to 6 nominees to reflect the excellent work from over the last two years.
The Best Film 2019 Nominees are Black ’47, Lance Daly’s revenge thriller set against the backdrop of the Great Irish Famine, Float Like a Butterfly, Carmel Winters inspiring coming-of-age boxing drama set in a traveller community in 1960’s Ireland. Rosie, Paddy Breathnach’s moving film about the resilience and determination of a family struggling through the Homeless Crisis, The Dig, Andy and Ryan Tohill’s thrilling tale of revenge and redemption, and The Hole in the Ground, Lee Cronin’s superbly scary Irish horror.
The Best Film 2020 Nominees are A Bump Along the Way, about the awkward relationship between an immature mum who finds herself pregnant and her disapproving teenage daughter, Arracht Tom Sullivan’s Irish-language story of a man’s struggle for sanity and survival during the Great Famine, Calm with Horses, a dark crime drama about divided loyalties and family in the west of Ireland, Extra Ordinary, Mike Ahern & Enda Loughman’s hilarious, warm-hearted supernatural comedy, and Ordinary Love, Lisa Barros D’sa & Glenn Leyburn’s moving portrait of a couple as they deal with a cancer diagnosis.
The Best Director Category sees films from both years represented strongly. The nominees are Paddy Breathnach for Rosie, Nora Twomey for the animation The Breadwinner, Lance Daly for Black ’47, Tom Sullivan for Arracht, Mike Ahern & Enda Loughman for Extra Ordinary, Lee Cronin for The Hole in the Ground and Lisa Barros D’sa & Glenn Leyburn for Ordinary Love.
Best Director
Four of the Best Film/Best Director nominations are for feature debuts for their directors, including Andy & Ryan Tohill for The Dig, Lee Cronin for The Hole in the Ground, Tom Sullivan for Arracht, and Mike Ahern & Enda Loughman for Extra Ordinary.
Best Screenwriter
Nominated for Best Scriptwriter in Film is Roddy Doyle for Rosie, Owen McCafferty for Ordinary Love, Joe Murtagh for Calm with Horses, Mark O’Halloran for Rialto, Tom Sullivan for Arracht, and Carmel Winters for Float Like a Butterfly.
Actress In a Leading Role
In the Actress in a Leading Role (Film) Category, Jessie Buckley is nominated for her performance in country-and-western underdog musical story Wild Rose, Aisling Franciosi for her gut-wrenching performance in the harrowing revenge thriller The Nightingale, Bronagh Gallagher’s warm and funny portrayal of a mum, forced to finally grow up due to a surprise pregnancy in A Bump Along the Way, Sarah Greene for her portrayal of the titular Rosie who’s determination and perseverance holds her family together, Seána Kerslake for her portrayal of a young mother faced with the terrifying prospect that her son may not be the boy she thinks he is in The Hole in the Ground and Saoirse Ronan for her performance as Jo in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women.
Actor In a Leading Role
In the Actor in a Leading Role Film category, Dara Devaney is nominated for his performance as a musician crippled in a car accident who joins a violent, avant-garde circus in Finky; Moe Dunford is shortlisted for his portrayal of a man seeking redemption for a crime he cannot remember committing in The Dig, Liam Neeson’s performance as a husband dealing with his wife’s cancer diagnosis sees the veteran actor nominated for one of the best performances of his career. Dónall Ó Héalaí is nominated for his breakout performance as a man struggling to survive and stay sane in the Famine, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is shortlisted for his stunning performance as a man living a double life in Rialto, and Barry Ward is nominated for his portrayal of Martin Martin in the hilarious Extra Ordinary.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Niamh Algar is nominated for Supporting Actress (Film) for her role as a fiercely protective young mother in Calm with Horses, alongside Caitriona Balfe for her performance in racing drama Le Mans ’66; Seána Kerslake earns her second nomination for her performance in Dublin Oldschool; Charlie Murphy for her role as the troubled matriarch in Dark Lies the Island; Emily Taaffe for her role as a grieving sister in The Dig, and Catherine Walker for her role in Paul Mercier’s We Ourselves.
Actor in a Suporting Role
Nominated Actors in Supporting Role (Film) are Lorcan Cranitch for The Dig, Dara Devaney for Arracht, Barry Keoghan for Calm with Horses, Ian Lloyd-Anderson for Dublin Oldschool, Stephen Rea for Black ’47, and David Wilmot for Ordinary Love.
George Morrison Feature Documentary
The strongly contested Feature Documentary category showcases the incredible Irish work in the field with Ireland’s entry for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category Gaza being joined by I’ Dolours, one woman’s story of life and death in the IRA, Katie Ross Whitaker’s documentary about Irish boxer Katie Taylor Documentary; The Image you Missed; a documentary essay film that weaves together a history of the Northern Irish Troubles with the story of a son’s search for his father; The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid in which a farmer resists state agents who try to forcibly buy his land and When All is Ruin Once Again, a highly personal documentary essay, an original view of contemporary Gort (Co. Galway) and Crusheen (Co. Clare) and their environs.