President Higgins congratulates Cillian Murphy on "appropriately" dedicating his Oscar to peacemakers

Cillian Murphy made history last night as the first Irish born actor to win the Academy Award for best actor for his role as J.J. Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's epic biopic Oppenheimer.

While accepting the coveted gold statue Murphy described himself as "A very proud Irishman tonight".

The Cork actor paid special thanks to director Christopher Nolan, the Oppenheimer Cast and crew along with his own team and family.

In his acceptance speech Murphy paid special tribute to peacemakers everywhere saying: "You know, we made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and for better or for worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I’d really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere".

Before leaving the Dolby Theatre stage the actor conclude by saying "Go raibh míle maith agat".

Both his achievement and comments were welcomed by President Michael D Higgins who took to X to congratulate him saying "Congratulations to Cillian Murphy on his wonderful achievement in winning the Best Actor Oscar, which he so appropriately dedicated to the peacemakers everywhere".

Congratulations to Cillian Murphy on his wonderful achievement in winning the Best Actor Oscar, which he so appropriately dedicated to the peacemakers everywhere. Congratulations too to @ElementPictures on the success of Poor Things

— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) March 11, 2024

Congratulations were also in order for Dublin's Element Pictures, who produced multi Oscar award winning film Poor Things.

The gongs taken home by the Irish produced Yorgos Lanthimos' film include production design, costume design, makeup and hair and the award for best actress in a lead role  for Emma Stone.

Producer Ed Guiney said he was "absolutely thrilled" with Sunday night's results.

"It has a huge impact" Guiney Said.

"For instance, when we had the 11 nominations, we went from 500 [cinema] screens to 2,500 screens, and now that we have had these wins this weekend, we are now out on kind of digital platforms like Hulu and Apple and all that kind of stuff".

Mr Guiney also congratulated Murphy who told him that this year was akin to the Irish film industry's Italia '90.

"It has been great. I mean, we could not be happier really there is the juggernaut of Oppenheimer."

Oppenheimer was the biggest winner of the night, taking home seven gongs in total which were as follows: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Editing.