Cillian Murphy nominated for best actor award at the 96th Academy Awards

The 95th Academy Awards seemed like an unbeatable year for Irish talent in cinema, with last year's Academy Award ceremony seeing 14 nominations clocked up for Irish actors and filmmakers. This year, while it did not replicate the same success, saw a continuation of international recognition for Irish talent with a best actor nod for Cillian Murphy and a string of nominations for Poor Things, which was co-produced by Ireland's Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe.

Cillian Murphy received a nomination for Best Actor in a lead role for his performance in Oppenheimer.

Cillian Murphy, the tipped favourite for this year's best actor award, has hot competition on his heels in the form of Paul Giamatti for his performance in The Holdovers. While Murphy's performance of J.J. Oppenheimer in the historical biopic might seem a shoe-in after his Golden Globe win, Giamatti won the People's Choice award.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer received several other nominations including for best actor in a supporting role for Robert Downey Jr, best actress in supporting role for Emily Blunt, best adapted screenplay for Nolan,  best original soundtrack, Best cinematography, best director, and the coveted best film category.

Oppenheimer's box office rival Barbie Also raked up several nominations including two for Best Song, one for best actor in a supporting role for Ryan Gosling's performance as Ken, best actress in a supporting role for America Ferrara and the prize of all prizes - Best Film. However the $1.5 billion box office smash hit failed to garner any nominations for producer and lead actress Margot Robbie and failed to secure a best director nod for Greta Gerwig.

Irish produced Poor Things, did exceptionally well, picking up 11 nominations- hardly surprising after their 11 BAFTA nods. The Yorgos Lanthimos directed film was produced by Dublin's Element Pictures. Nominations for Poor Things included Tony McNamara for best original screenplay and Mark Ruffalo for best actor in a supporting role while Emma Stone received a nod for best actress. Poor Things also received a nod for Best Film.

Irish talent Robbie Ryan received a nomination for best cinematography for his work on Poor Things.

Another Academy Award favourite in this years' nominations was Martin Scorsese's' Killers of The Flower Moon, which received nods in the best picture category as well as best actor in lead role and best actress in a lead role.

That said, Oscar nominations and previous award show prizes is not always the most accurate predictor of success at the Academy Awards as Banshees of Inisheerin received an impressive 8 nominations at the 2023 Academy Awards but did not take home a single golden statue. This disappointing night came after the film had won a string of BAFTA and Golden Globe gongs.

2023 saw 2 Irish actors receive a nod for best actor- Colin Farrell and Paul Mescal for their roles in Banshees of Inisherin and Aftersun respectively, while Barry Keoghan and Brendan Gleeson raked up nominations for their supporting roles in Banshees.

Most impressively of all however was perhaps the surprise success of Irish language film An Cáilí Ciúin, which received a nomination for Best International Feature film- the first Irish language film to do so.

In spite of 14 nominations for Irish talent at last year's Oscars- the only nominees to take home a golden statue were Best Live Action Short Film winners An Irish Goodbye.