And the winner of the 2018 Oscar for Best Deployment of The Violent Femmes in a Film goes to…”

It’s highly unlikely that the 90th Academy Awards will include a new alt. rock-inclined category, but if they do the statuette would undoubtedly go to Sanctuary, the debut feature from Anglo-Irish actor and director Len Collin, which tells the story of how Larry and Sophie, two people with intellectual disabilities, fall in love.

“I had a ‘eureka!’ moment in the bath when I heard ‘Blister In The Sun’,” the affable 51-year-old laughs. “Up till then I wasn’t sure what kind of soundtrack I wanted for the film. I spoke to my editor, Julian, about it and he agreed that that spiky attitude of the Violent Femmes’ was perfect. I shouldn’t be revealing trade secrets, but I approached Alice Nutter from Chumbawamba about using ‘Tubthumping’ for the scene that takes place on the bus. She said, ‘We love the film and given what it’s about you can have it for free.’ I was delighted, but our music supervisor, John, went, ‘No, let’s pay them a thousand for the music rights and a thousand for the performing rights, which is quite low, so we can go to Sony or EMI or whoever and say, ‘That’s what a number one single is costing us…’ We duly approached the Violent Femmes’ people and got ‘Prove My Love’, ‘Gimme The Car’ and ‘Good Feeling’, which closes the film for under ten grand which in cinematic terms for a soundtrack is half-nothing.”