CORK native Cillian Murphy has secured a Best Actor award for his role in this year’s hit film Oppenheimer.
The Douglas-born actor, who stars as the eponymous J Robert Oppenheimer in the blockbuster, was announced as the winner at last night’s Dublin Film Critics Circle (DFCC) awards ceremony.
An annual event, the DFCC organisation represents Ireland’s professional film critics.
They selected Murphy, the current slight favourite for the best actor gong at the 2024 Academy Awards, as their winner for their corresponding award for his performance as Oppenheimer in Nolan’s sprawling biopic.
The story follows Murphy as Oppenheimer, who was one of the fathers of the atomic bomb, which was created during the Second World War.
Its star-studded cast also includes Kenneth Branagh of Belfast fame, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek and Josh Hartnett.
Cillian Murphy won Best Actor for his role in Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer'. (PIC: Universal Films)Elsewhere last night the DFCC critics announced their film of the year.
Some 47 films received votes in the poll but the ultimate winner was Celine Song’s Past Lives.
The New York-based drama “comfortably won” the category, the DFCC confirms.
That win means for the second year running, following the success of An Cailín Ciúin in 2022, a debut film has taken the top prize of the DFCC awards night.
Song, a filmmaker with Korean, Canadian and US connections, also won best director on the night.
Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Past Lives finds a young woman reuniting awkwardly with a man she hasn’t seen since they parted in Seoul as children.
Speaking after receiving her award, Song, who wrote and directed the film, said: “Thank you so much to The Dublin Film Critics Circle for these incredible honours.
“It means the world to me for my first feature film to be named Best Film and Best Director of the year.”
She added: “As someone who grew up admiring Irish cinema and literature, I had such a special time introducing Past Lives to the Irish audience at the Galway Film Fleadh this year.
“It’s been so meaningful to see the way the film has resonated with Irish audiences.
“I have a piece of my heart in Ireland. Thank you — I’m so incredibly touched and honoured.”
Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, was runner-up in the best film category, followed by Nolan’s Oppenheimer was at number three.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, the highest-grossing film ever at the Irish box office, came in at number seven.
Laura McGann’s The Deepest Breath was released this yearSix of the top 10 best documentaries selected by the DFCC were from Irish directors, with Laura McGann’s The Deepest Breath, following the perilous sport of free-diving, placed at number one.
Also on the top ten were Joe Lee’s 406 Days, Garry Keane and Stephen Gerard Kelly’s In the Shadow of Beirut, Margo Harkin’s Stolen, Ken Wardrop’s So This is Christmas and Ollie Aslin and Gary Lennon’s I Dream in Photos.
Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney’s Lakelands, starring Éanna Hardwicke as a GAA player coping with a head injury, was the overall winner of best Irish film.
The DFCC also acknowledged two outstanding breakthroughs.
Orén Kinlan, who plays the errant son to Eve Hewson’s harried mum in John Carney’s Flora and Son, was the Irish winner.
Raine Allen-Miller, director of the delightful British romantic comedy Rye Lane, took the international gong.
Formed in 2006, the DFCC, whose president is Tara Brady of The Irish Times, hands out yearly awards as well as prizes for the finest work at the Dublin International Film Festival.
