Irish director Jim Sheridan says he wrote an email to Martin McDonagh calling him a bastard for breaking his record as Irish director of the most Oscar-nominated film with Spirit Island.
There are compliments… and compliments. As noted by the Hollywood Reporter, who interviewed Jim SheridanAmerican directors such as Spielberg, Lucas and Cameron usually buy full pages of newspapers to congratulate their colleague when one of their films beats another’s record. But in Ireland it works differently and things are, shall we say, less formal.
Jim Sheridan congratulates Martin McDonagh on Oscar nominations in his own way
For 34 years, Jim Sheridan held the Irish director’s record for the film with the highest number of nominations Oscar. Then, it arrived Martin McDonaghwho beat him. My left footfrom 1989, was nominated for 5 Oscars, followed by In the name of the fatherin 1993, which obtained 7 (the same number of Belfast Of Kenneth Branagh last year). McDonagh (or rather the film he directed) had 9 candidature con The spirits of the island, to which Sheridan, he says, wrote him an email and, verbatim: “I told him he was a bastard for breaking the record.” When asked about the response, the director said that he did not remember it but that in a subsequent email he had written to McDonagh that “if he was lucky, The spirits of the island would have made the Irish Times list of 50 best Irish films next year”. Angling with the national newspaper, Sheridan pointed out that it had omitted from its regular lists both In Brugesis A happy hour copbeautiful – despite the Italian title – film by McDonagh’s brother, John Michael McDonaghby the way interpreted by Brendan Gleeson. “So, for God’s sake!” Sheridan commented on these omissions. And when asked if her films had made it into these tops, she wittily said “Yes, some, but I had to resort to bribery”. Speaking then of Barry Keoghan, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Sheridan said: “For a few years I lived literally a hundred yards away from him. Barry is a unique talent. He has a very bizarre, almost spiritual presence. You live in silence with him.” The Summerhill neighborhood in Dublin, where they both lived, and which was once known for drugs and crime, will be the focus of the new film by the 74-year-old director, a semi-autobiographical story about his teenage years, which will be titled North Sheriff Street. However, one thing is certain: it’s a fantastic year at the Oscars for Irish cinema and whatever statuette goes to McDonagh’s beautiful film, Jim Sheridan will be among the first to congratulate him.
