'People are looking at us as leaders': Diversity of Irish film is to be celebrated

As Ireland celebrates a record 14 Oscar nominations, people working in the film industry in Cork have hailed the positive impact it will have on future generations of filmmakers and actors.

Banshees of Inisherin writer/director Martin McDonagh; its stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon; Cailín Ciúin; and Paul Mescal are among the Irish nominees.

Another stand-out nomination is short film An Irish Goodbye, which focuses on the story of two estranged brothers, Lorcan and Turlough, reuniting following the untimely death of their mother.

Actor James Martin, who has Down syndrome, plays Lorcan, a lead role in the film.

Eleanor McSherry, programme coordinator at Adult Continuing Education at University College Cork (UCC) believes An Irish Goodbye’s nomination is massive for inclusion within the industry.

“I think it’s really important (James’s nomination as part of An Irish Goodbye) because at UCC, we are the leaders in creating courses for the industry to help people who are neurodiverse.”

Ms McSherry was pivotal in creating courses for the industry to help people who are neurodiverse and may need additional support on set.

“I designed two courses for welfare coordinator, which is a new role in the industry to help people with mental health issues, harassment, bully or sexual harassment on set.

“I also designed a course on neurodiversity in the screen industry.

“These courses are unique to our college. There’s no other college in the world currently running courses like this, and they’re designed to create a much more diverse, safer environment and culture in the screen industry.”

The college has seen strong demand for the wellbeing coordinator course. Sixty applications were made within the first three days for the 20 spots available.

In 2020, the Oscars outlined new guidelines, due to come into effect by the 96th Oscars in 2024, that require films to meet two of four diversity standards to be eligible for a best-picture nomination.

The stipulations include:

• At least one actor from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group must be cast in a significant role.
• The story must centre on women, LGBTQ people, a racial or ethnic group or the disabled.
• At least 30% of the cast must be actors from at least two of the four underrepresented categories.

“There’s a huge amount of work being done in the industry on diversity, inclusion in race and gender, but disability is lagging far behind,” Ms McSherry said. 

“I’ve given talks about the courses to the European Broadcasting Union, across Ireland with TG4 and RTÉ and Cartoon Saloon.

“We’ve been invited to the UK by the British Academy to come and give them a talk. It’s massive and it’s all coming from UCC.”

She also highlighted the nomination of Barry Keoghan, who is building a hugely successful career as an actor. The Dubliner faced significant challenges in his childhood, losing his mother at the age of 12 and being cared for in 13 separate foster homes throughout his youth.

“People like Barry are a perfect example of how things are changing in Ireland,” she said. “People are looking at us as leaders now.

“The hope is that we’re seeing, ‘Oh, isn’t it fantastic that somebody like Barry got through the system and got nominated for an Oscar?’, and I think it could become the norm,” Eleanor added.

Head of Film and Screen Media at UCC, Ciara Chambers, believes the record-breaking Irish Oscar nomination haul is an “exciting moment” for Irish cinema.

“It’s a really exciting moment for Irish cinema, particularly Irish language cinema,” she said. “It’s especially inspiring for our students to see Ireland represented across the Oscars shortlist in so many categories, both in front of and behind the camera.

“There is, at the moment, a big industry skills gap in Ireland. So hopefully this kind of international recognition will encourage more young people to consider careers in the film industry.

Ms Chambers stressed the importance of supporting Irish cinema.

“I think one of the things that’s really important at the moment for us, both within the university in terms of teaching film and screen media, but also as part of the wider general public is to support local production.

“That’s really, really important. We especially need to support our cinemas. So obviously watching film in a cinema is totally different from trying to watch films on your phone or on a laptop.

“Cinemas have really suffered, throughout the pandemic and after so, it’s really, really important that people go along to the cinema support our local cinemas, make sure to see Irish films and cinemas.”

The success has given a huge boost to the industry in Ireland, she believes.

“This really exciting news about the Oscars shortlist really gives an injection of energy and a buzz around the creative sector in Ireland — at the moment there have been so many recent success stories.

“This gives us another chance to make those success story visible. Across the world people will be looking at Irish cinema differently after this incredible success and the Oscar shortlist,” Chambers added.

• The 95th Academy Awards will be presented on March 13 from 12am Irish time at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.