The Banshees Of Inisherin was one of the big winners at the London Critics’ Circle film awards.
British-Irish director Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy left the ceremony with five prizes – including screenwriter of the year for McDonagh, actor of the year for Colin Farrell and both supporting actor and actress for Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon respectively.
The win continues Farrell’s successful awards season run, after scooping his first Academy Award nomination for best actor, and receiving a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) gong for his performance as Padraic Suilleabhain.
The film about friendship, which co-stars Brendan Gleeson, also picked up the Attenborough Award for British Irish film of the year.
Another Irish title, The Quiet Girl, won foreign language film of the year in a tie win alongside Park Chan-wook’s thriller Decision To Leave.
Meanwhile, Oscar-tipped psychological drama Tar, directed by Todd Field, won three awards. The film stars Cate Blanchett as the complicated genius conductor of a German orchestra at the height of her career before it begins to unravel.
It was named film of the year at the May Fair Hotel ceremony on Sunday, while Academy Award winner Blanchett was named actress of the year and Field director of the year.
It marks the third time Blanchett has won the award, after Elizabeth in 1998 and Blue Jasmine in 2013.
Meanwhile, Michelle Yeoh was presented with the critics’ top prize, the Dilys Powell award for excellence in film for her role as Evelyn Wang in the action epic Everything Everywhere All At Once.
It comes after the 60-year-old Malaysian actress received an Oscar nod and a Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or comedy motion picture in the film about a Chinese immigrant who finds herself responsible for saving the multiverse.
Florence Pugh and Bill Nighy were named British-Irish actress and actor for their body of work in 2022, which saw Nighy scoop his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a veteran civil servant in Living.
The ceremony proved to be a reunion for Aftersun stars Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio, who played father and daughter in writer-director Charlotte Wells’ film.
Teenager Corio won the young British-Irish performer award for her role as Sophie Paterson, while Paul was on hand to accept Wells’ Philip French award for breakthrough British-Irish filmmaker.
The technical achievement award went to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio for animation and was collected by Gregory Mann, who voiced the title character.
Meanwhile, Laura Poitras’s film All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, about the life and work of renowned photographer and activist Nan Goldin, was named documentary of the year and Keeran Anwar Blessie’s A Fox In The Night secured British Irish short film of the year.
