I’m taking this very proudly back to Ireland.”ĭwyer also wrote about the triumph of low-budget independent productions over the Hollywood studio blockbuster machine that year. Referring to Christy Brown’s mother, Fricker said, “Anyone who gives birth 22 times deserves one of these. “I don’t believe this,” Fricker said in her speech. Actress Brenda Fricker clearly was excited, and admitted she had put money on one of her rival nominees, Lena Olin.” Fricker was being tailed all day by a camera crew from Entertainment Tonight, who clearly felt she was in with more of a chance that she did.

“‘I just wish it were over at this stage,’ he sighed, as he joined up with an equally subdued Jim Sheridan. “Irish film producer Noel Pearson was uncharacteristically muted as he made his way through the lobby of his West Hollywood hotel to the stretch limousine which was waiting to take him to his first Oscar ceremony,” one of Dwyer’s reports began. Michael Dwyer, the late Irish Times film journalist – the 10th anniversary of his death falls on New Year’s Day 2020 – was in the city reporting on the phenomenon that was this film. In the arts section of The Irish Times on March 28th, 1990, a full page was dedicated to a remarkable night in Los Angeles at the Academy Awards.

Next March, we can reflect on what happened when an Irish film with a budget of under £2 million, My Left Foot, reinvented and reinvigorated Irish film. As awards season rumbles around at the dawn of next year, 2020 is also the 30th anniversary of one of the greatest nights ever in Irish cinema. Tis the season to start thinking about what films will win which gongs.

My left foot book