The music biopic Kneecap and the Saoirse Ronan-sung Winter Coat from the wartime drama Blitz both feature on the Oscars shortlists that have been announced ahead of next month's nominations.
The movie Kneecap has been shortlisted for Best International Feature Film alongside Santosh from the UK, Armand from Norway and Emilia Pérez from France.
Also on the shortlist are I'm Still Here (Brazil), Universal Language (Canada), Waves (Czech Republic), The Girl With The Needle (Denmark), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), Touch (Iceland), Vermiglio (Italy), Flow (Latvia), From Ground Zero (Palestine), Dahomey (Senegal) and How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thailand).
Winter Coat was written by Steve McQueen, Taura Stinson and three-time Oscar-nominated composer Nicholas Britell.
Kneecap - the rap trio - have also been shortlisted alongside Winter Coat in the Best Original Song category for their track Sick In The Head.
Meanwhile, The Apprentice, produced by Irish production company Tailored Films, has been shortlisted in the Best Make-Up and Hairstyling Category, and Room Taken, a short film funded under Screen Ireland's flagship Focus Shorts scheme, is shortlisted for Best Live Action Short.
The films will now go on to the next stage of the nominations, where members of the Academy will select from the reduced list of contenders in each category to pick the final five nominees.
The final Oscar nominations will be announced on 17 January.
Writer-director Rich Peppiatt's critically acclaimed movie Kneecap stars the Belfast rap trio of the same name and tells their "riotous and ground-breaking" origin story.
Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí star in the film as themselves alongside Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, Simone Kirby, Josie Walker, Fionnuala Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds and Adam Best.
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Speaking about being shortlisted, Peppiatt said: "If someone had walked into the pub in 2019 - back when me and Kneecap were still dreaming up what this movie could be - and they told us five years later we'd be in the running for an Oscar, we’d probably have asked for a blast on whatever they were smoking...
"It’s been a rollercoaster journey marked by a huge amount of hard graft and plenty of good fun and making it to that hallowed Hollywood red carpet would certainly be a grand way to finish it all off."
Kneecap is the third Irish film to be shortlisted in the Best International Feature category after Viva and An Cailín Ciúin.
The news comes on the heels of a triumphant sweep at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) earlier this month where Kneecap claimed seven prestigious awards.
The comedy has already taken honours at the Sundance Film Festival in the US and the Galway Film Fleadh.
Commenting on the shortlisting of the films, Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive of Fís Eireann / Screen Ireland said:
"We would like to extend our sincere congratulations to the creative teams behind Irish films Kneecap, The Apprentice and short film Room Taken on today's Academy Awards shortlist announcements. Comhghairdeas ó chroí libh!
"This is the second time in history that a film in the Irish language has been shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film - and to have three films shortlisted across various categories is an incredible achievement for Irish cinema."
The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, 2 March 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood with comedy star Conan O'Brien set to host for the first time.
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