Cork’s Oscar winners recalled ahead of Sunday’s ceremony

When the 98th Academy Awards take place in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday they will prompt memories of Cork Oscars.

Cork’s five Oscar nominations and wins over the years put the county in joint third in Ireland for Academy glory, say Virgin Media Ireland.

In 1974, filmmaker Louis Marcus became the first Cork person to receive an Oscar nomination, for a documentary short film, Children at Work. Two years later, his film Conquest of Light was nominated for best live action short.

Oppenheimer

More recently, Cillian Murphy won best actor for Oppenheimer in 2024, while Midleton’s Nora Twomey received best-animated-feature nods for The Secret of Kells (2009) and The Breadwinner (2017).

Nationally, Dublin tops the charts, with a combined 53 Oscar nominations and wins. Dubliners who were nominated or won include Brenda Fricker, who won best supporting actress for My Left Foot in 1990, becoming the first Irish actress to get an Academy Award.

Dubliner Richard Baneham won best visual effects for Avatar and later for Avatar: The Way of Water. More recently, Colin Farrell was nominated for best actor for The Banshees of Inisherin in 2022.

Kildare ranks second, with seven Oscar nominations and wins, including several for make-up artist Michèle Burke, who won best makeup and hairstyling for Quest for Fire in 1983 and Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1993.

More recently, Paul Mescal earned a best-actor nomination for Aftersun in 2022.

Galway ties with Cork for third place, by claiming as a native Londoner Martin McDonagh. He won best live action short for Six Shooter in 2006, later receiving nominations for In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and The Banshees of Inisherin, variously for best original screenplay, best director, and best picture.

Musical consultant

This year’s Academy Awards have a slight Cork connection, in that Baile Mhúirne native Iarla Ó Lionáird worked as a musical consultant on Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, the first film in history to receive 16 Oscar nominations.

The 2026 Academy Awards feature several Irish nominees, led by Killarney’s Jessie Buckley, nominated for best actress for her role as Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet.

Coleraine-born author Maggie O’Farrell and Hamnet director Chloé Zhao — who adapted the screenplay together from Ms O’Farrell’s novel — could win a best- adapted-screenplay Oscar.

Richard Baneham is again nominated in the visual-effects category for Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Element Pictures’s Bugonia has four nominations: Best picture, best actress, best original score, and best adapted screenplay. Retirement Plan, directed by Dubliner John Kelly, starring Domhnall Gleeson, is up for best animated short film.