IFTA Nominations Announced for the IFTA Film & Drama Awards 2020

The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) has announced the 2020 IFTA Nominations for the Irish Academy Awards across 25 categories in Film and Drama.

Over the past few months during lockdown, the Irish film and television industry has been busy viewing, deliberating, and shortlisting the best work from across great Irish films, performances, and achievements in what has been an unprecedented period of success for Irish creative talent working at home and abroad.

Nominations have been shortlisted by Irish Academy Members alongside a specialist Jury panel of industry experts from around the world.

IFTA Chief Executive, Áine Moriarty stated that:  “This year’s Nominations showcase to the world what Ireland’s small but excellent film and television community has to offer.  Our industry is delivering world-class standards and the Irish Academy is proud to showcase and acknowledge their achievements.  These past few months have been difficult for so many, and we look forward to a time when Irish productions can resume and continue to bring powerful engaging stories to the screen”.

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.

View the full list of Nominations here.

2020 IFTA Nominations:

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.

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.

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.

In the Acting categories, the Academy welcomed a record number of submissions for females in all acting categories. Reflecting the improving number of lead roles being written for women in Irish Film, the number of lead actresses submitted in both film and drama superseded that of their male counterparts in lead categories.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

 
Television Drama Nominations:
 
Television Drama being produced across Ireland north and south continues to grip both Irish and International audiences with compelling scripts, great direction, and performances all round. In the Best Drama category, the nominations are Blood, the taught, psychological thriller about a woman investigating her mother’s supposedly accidental death; Death and Nightingales, a riveting story of love, betrayal, deception, and revenge, set in the beautiful haunting countryside of Fermanagh in 1885; Dublin Murders a tense, psychological thriller, which follows Dublin detectives Rob Reilly and Cassie Maddox as they investigate a child’s murder in 2006 and Vikings, which follows the exploits of the legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok and his crew, and later those of his sons.

The Best Director Drama category highlights the high calibre work being done by Irish Directors at home and abroad and in particular the strength of our female directors who make up 4 of the 6 nominations. Nominations in Best Director Drama are Anthony Byrne for Peaky Blinders, John Hayes for Dublin Murders, Lisa Mulcahy for Blood, Hannah Quinn for Blood, Aisling Walsh for Elizabeth is Missing and Dearbhla Walsh for The Handmaid's Tale.

Best Script Drama sees another strong showing for Irish talent working at home and abroad with  Ronan Bennett nominated for Top Boy, Daragh Carville for The Bay, Mark O'Connor for  Darklands and Mark O'Rowe for Temple

The nominations across all four Drama acting categories show just how well Irish actors are being received for their Irish and international work.  In the strongly contested Actress in a Leading Role category, Niamh Algar has been nominated for her performance in Channel 4’s The Virtues; Caitriona Balfe for her role in the US series, Outlander, Jessie Buckley for The Woman in White, Sarah Greene for Dublin Murders, Ruth Negga for the role of Tulip in the US comic-adaptation Preacher, and Ann Skelly for Death and Nightingales

The Actor in a Leading Role in Drama category sees Richard Dormer nominated for Fortitude, Adrian Dunbar for Line Of Duty, Brendan Gleeson for Mr. Mercedes, Cillian Murphy for Peaky Blinders, Chris O'Dowd for Get Shorty and Andrew Scott for his role in the Black Mirror episode Smithereens.

Actress in a Supporting Role Drama sees Niamh Algar earn her third nomination for Pure, Helen Behan for her role in The Virtues, Ruth Bradley for Guilt. Ingrid Craigie is nominated for her role in Blood and Fiona Shaw for Killing Eve, while Jessie Buckley earns her third nomination for Chernobyl

The Actor in a Supporting Role Drama category has nominations for Liam Cunningham for Game of Thrones, Barry Keoghan for Chernobyl, Owen McDonnell for Killing Eve, Cillian O'Gairbhi for Blood, Mark O'Halloran adds an acting nomination to his screenwriting nomination for Rialto with his role in The Virtues, while Rialto star Tom Vaughan Lawlor is nominated for Dublin Murders.

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 Taylor Documentary Katie, 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.

Numbers

Across the film Categories and including craft and technical, Arracht has 11 nominations, Rosie receives  9, The Hole in The Ground 7, Black 47 6, Calm with Horses received 5, Ordinary Love received 6, and Float like a Butterfly, Never Grow Old and The Dig receives 4 Nominations.

In the Acting Categories Niamh Algar and Jessie Buckley receive 3 Nominations each across Film and TV Drama, followed by Caitriona Balfe, Sarah Greene, Dara Devaney, Tom Vaughan Lawlor and Barry Keoghan who each receive 2 Nominations.

In TV Drama Blood receives 5, Dublin Murders and Vikings 4 Nominations each, The Virtues and Game of Thrones receive 3 and Death and Nightingales and Killing Eve both receive 2 Nominations.

View the full list of Nominations here.

Press Queries

For all press enquiries please contact the IFTA Press Office press@ifta.ie to request:

1) Images, Biogs and EPK clips.

2) Interview requests with Nominees (which will be facilitated where possible)

press@ifta.ie