Ireland Picks 'Aontas' for 2027 Oscar Race
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- "Aontas" by Damian McCann was chosen by IFTA and a committee including "Evil Dead Rise" director Lee Cronin, "Derry Girls" creator Lisa McGee, BAFTA-nominated directors Brian Kirk and Kathryn Ferguson, Emmy winner Aisha Tyler, and actress Fionnuala Flaherty
- Irish-language film is told in reverse chronology, opening in the tragic aftermath of a heist-gone-wrong at a rural Irish bank and tracing back through three unlikely thieves led by a woman on the verge of a breakdown
- Cast includes Carrie Crowley ("The Quiet Girl"), Bríd Brennan, Eva-Jane Gaffney, Seán T. Ó Meallaigh, Marcus Lamb, and Art Parkinson
- Production was handled by Órfhlaith Ní Chearnaigh and Christopher Myers for Púca Pictures, with funding from TG4, BBC Gaeilge, and Northern Ireland Screen's Irish Language Broadcast Fund, and shot over 18 rainy days in the Glens of Antrim
- McCann said he was bringing in soggy washing from the rain when the news arrived, and noted he co-wrote the script with Sarah Gordon in the attic of their house
- IFTA Chief Executive Áine Moriarty called the film "an intriguing and clever twist on the classic bank heist narrative, with powerful female performances at its core"
- Submission follows Ireland's 2023 entry "The Quiet Girl," which became the country's first-ever Oscar nominee for international feature, and 2024's shortlisted "Kneecap"
Why it matters: Ireland has historically struggled to get past the international feature shortlist, but the back-to-back breakthroughs of 'The Quiet Girl' (2023 nomination) and 'Kneecap' (2024 shortlist) have established a track record that 'Aontas' now has to extend — and doing so as an Irish-language production signals that the country's minority-language cinema is a viable Oscar vehicle, not just English-language storytelling.
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