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Movies & TV

21st Feb 2016

VIDEO: Lenny Abrahamson lowers expectations ahead of next weekend’s Oscars

Tony Cuddihy

“I’m preparing my, ‘I didn’t win’ face.”

Room director Lenny Abrahamson was on the The Ray D’Arcy Show on Saturday night and he said the build-up to next weekend’s Academy Awards is ‘completely surreal.’

Abrahamson directed Room, which is up for the Best Picture award, while he is also nominated in the Best Director category.

Brie Larson and Emma Donoghue are also nominated for Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay respectively.

“It is a very strange kind of double image you have when you’re there [at the lunch] because you know you’re there for real and you’re meeting these people. But on the other hand you’re also kind of living a sort of televised version of that in your head. It is completely surreal,” Abrahamson, appearing alongside his producer Ed Guiney, said.

Guiney said that the success of Room is the culmination of 20 years of investment from the Irish Film Board.

“We are a tiny country,” said Guiney.

“What we always say about it is it’s been on the boil for quite a long time. For the last 10 years, I guess, or more maybe, Irish films have just been registering more and more internationally.

“If you look at key festivals like Sundance or Toronto or Cannes, Irish movies have been there. So it hasn’t come out of nowhere. And I think it’s also a testament to the Irish Film Board’s investment over 20 years.”

Main image via RTÉ

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