Huge Irish stars set to attend IFTA Awards

The biggest names in the Irish Screen industry will arrive back home to Dublin this weekend for the Irish Academy Awards hosted by Kevin McGahern this Friday, 14th February.

The awards honour exceptional achievements in Film and Drama across 29 categories from the past year.

The 22nd-anniversary IFTA Awards Ceremony is taking place on Friday, February 14th, 2025, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre.

Colm Meaney will receive the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award surrounded by his family, friends, and industry peers.

Irish Screen Stars already confirmed to attend include Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan, Andrew Scott, Ruth Negga, Nicola Coughlan, Sharon Horgan, Anthony Boyle; Kneecap’s J.J. Ó Dochartaigh, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and Naoise Ó Cairealláin.

Other stars include Liam Cunningham, Eva Birthistle, Victoria Smurfit, Alisha Weir, Clinton Liberty and Chris O’Dowd, creator & star of new series Small Town, Big Story; Caitriona Balfe, Patrick Gibson, Alison Oliver, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.

Deirdre O’Kane, Baz Ashmawy, Clare Dunne, Hazel Doupe, Elaine Cassidy, Lola Petticrew, Roisin Gallagher, and Brían F.O’Byrne will also be in attendance.

The awards have honoured a wide range of talents with the film Kneecap receiving the most nominations.

The Irish-language film created by the band of the same name has received an impressive 17 nominations.

In the drama categories the series Say Nothing received an impressive 10 nominations.

Cillian Murphy and Small Things Like These also received a number of nominations too.

Take a look at the full list of nominees:

BEST FILM

Kathleen Is Here
King Frankie
Kneecap
Small Things Like These
Spilt Milk
The Apprentice

DIRECTOR – FILM

Eva Birthistle – Kathleen Is Here
John Crowley – We Live in Time
Brian Durnin – Spilt Milk
Damian McCarthy – Oddity
Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor – Baltimore
Rich Peppiatt- Kneecap

SCRIPT – FILM

Eva Birthistle – Kathleen Is Here
Cara Loftus – Spilt Milk
Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor – Baltimore
Rich Peppiatt – Kneecap
Stephen Shields – Abigail
Enda Walsh – Small Things Like These

LEAD ACTOR – FILM

Peter Coonan – King Frankie
Paul Mescal – Gladiator II
Cillian Murphy – Small Things Like These
Naoise Ó Caireallain – Kneecap
J.J. Ó Dochartaigh – Kneecap
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – Kneecap

LEAD ACTRESS – FILM

Carolyn Bracken – Oddity
Jessie Buckley – Wicked Little Letters
Hazel Doupe – Kathleen Is Here
Saoirse Ronan – The Outrun
Eileen Walsh – Small Things Like These
Alisha Weir – Abigail

SUPPORTING ACTOR – FILM

Peter Coonan – Kathleen Is Here
Michael Fassbender – Kneecap
Barry Keoghan – Bird
Brían F. O’Byrne – Conclave
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor – Baltimore
Steve Wall – Oddity

SUPPORTING ACTRESS – FILM

Zara Devlin – Small Things Like These
Clare Dunne – Kathleen Is Here
Fionnuala Flaherty – Kneecap
Simone Kirby – Kneecap
Saoirse Ronan – Blitz
Jessica Reynolds – Kneecap

BEST DRAMA

Bad Sisters
Say Nothing
The Dry
Bodkin
Blue Lights
Crá

DIRECTOR – DRAMA

Paddy Breathnach – The Dry
Brian Kirk – The Day of the Jackal
Michael Lennox – Say Nothing
Lisa Mulcahy – Sanctuary
Hannah Quinn – The Boy That Never Was
Dearbhla Walsh – Bad Sisters

SCRIPT – DRAMA

Baz Ashmawy – Faithless
Ronan Bennett – The Day of the Jackal
Nancy Harris – The Dry
Sharon Horgan – Bad Sisters
Adam Patterson, Declan Lawn – Blue Lights
Kirsten Sheridan, Joshua Zetumer – Say Nothing

LEAD ACTOR – DRAMA

Anthony Boyle – Say Nothing
Colin Farrell – The Penguin
Michael Fassbender – The Agency
Ciarán Hinds – The Dry
Andrew Scott – Ripley
Aidan Turner – Rivals

LEAD ACTRESS – DRAMA

Elaine Cassidy – Sanctuary
Nicola Coughlan – Bridgerton
Siobhán Cullen – Bodkin
Roisin Gallagher- The Dry
Sharon Horgan – Bad Sisters
Lola Petticrew – Say Nothing

SUPPORTING ACTOR – DRAMA

Anthony Boyle – Masters of the Air
Liam Cunningham – 3 Body Problem
Michael Smiley – Bad Sisters
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor – Say Nothing
Chris Walley – Bodkin
David Wilmot – Bodkin

SUPPORTING ACTRESS – DRAMA

Siobhán Cullen – The Dry
Hazel Doupe – Say Nothing
Eve Hewson – Bad Sisters
Ruth Negga – Presumed Innocent
Fiona Shaw – Bad Sisters
Victoria Smurfit – Rivals

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Anora
Conclave
Dune Part Two
The Brutalist
The Outrun
The Substance

BEST INTERNATIONAL ACTOR

Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothee Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

BEST INTERNATIONAL ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Angelina Jolie – Maria
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Florence Pugh – We Live in Time
Emily Watson – Small Things Like These

GEORGE MORRISON FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Face Down: The Disappearance of Thomas Niedermayer
Don’t Forget to Remember
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story
The Flats
Mrs Robinson
Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell to Hughes’s

LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM

Clodagh
Farmers!?
Room Taken
Turnaround
Two Mothers
We Beg to Differ
Wife of the Future
Wrecker

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Dembaya
Every Other Weekend
Homebird
Nightpay

CASTING

Baltimore – Emma Gunnery
Bodkin – Louise Kiely
Kneecap – Carla Stronge
Say Nothing – Lucy Amos, Nina Gold
Small Things Like These – Maureen Hughes

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Bird – Robbie Ryan
Fréwaka – Narayan Van Maele
Kneecap – Ryan Kernaghan
Say Nothing – Stephen Murphy
The Penguin – Darran Tiernan

COSTUME DESIGN

Abigail – Gwen Jeffares Hourie
House of the Dragon – Caroline McCall
Kneecap – Zjena Glamocanin
Spilt Milk – Gwen Jeffares Hourie
Vikings Valhalla – Susan O’Connor-Cave

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Abigail – Susie Cullen
Bodkin – Paki Smith
Kneecap – Nicola Moroney
The Tourist – Philip Murphy
Vikings Valhalla – Tom Conroy

HAIR & MAKE-UP

Abigail – Linda Gannon, Liz Byrne
Kneecap – Liz Boston

Small Things Like These – Lorraine Glynn, Lynn Johnston
The Apprentice – Sandra Kelly, Tom McInerney
Vikings Valhalla – Joe Whelan, Tom McInerney

SOUND

Abigail – Hugh Fox
Blackshore – John ‘Bob’ Brennan, Mark Henry, Fionan Higgins
Kneecap – Aza Hand, Brendan Rehill, Chris Woodcock
Oddity – Aza Hand, Hugo Parvery
Small Things Like These – Hugh Fox, Senjan Jansen

ORIGINAL MUSIC

Fréwaka – Die Hexen
The Apprentice – David Holmes
The Dry – Sarah Lynch
The Magic Reindeer: Saving Santa’s Sleigh – Eimear Noone, Craig Stuart Garfinkle
The Song Cycle – Ray Harman

EDITING

Bad Sisters – Derek Holland
Kathleen Is Here – Colin Campbell
Kneecap – Julian Ulrichs & Chris Gill
Paddington in Peru – Úna Ní Dhonghaíle
Say Nothing – Edel McDonnell

VFX

3 Body Problem – Ed Bruce, Liam Neville
Bodkin – John Kennedy, Lisa Maher
Sanctuary – Dan Cullen
Shögun – Ed Bruce, Andrew BarrY