Entertainment

Homecoming celebrations in Belfast for team behind Oscar-winning short film An Irish Goodbye

Ross White, James Martin, Tom Berkeley and Seamus O'Hara accept the award for best live action short film for An Irish Goodbye at the Oscars on Sunday. Picture by AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Ross White, James Martin, Tom Berkeley and Seamus O'Hara accept the award for best live action short film for An Irish Goodbye at the Oscars on Sunday. Picture by AP Photo/Chris Pizzello Ross White, James Martin, Tom Berkeley and Seamus O'Hara accept the award for best live action short film for An Irish Goodbye at the Oscars on Sunday. Picture by AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

HOMECOMING celebrations are expected to get into full swing on Thursday as the team behind the Oscar-winning short film An Irish Goodbye are expected to arrive back to Belfast.

Ross White and Tom Berkeley, who wrote and directed the film, as well as leading stars James Martin and Seamus O'Hara are due to fly into Dublin on Thursday afternoon before travelling north.

A homecoming event is set to take place at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast on Thursday night where the cast and crew will meet with friends and family to celebrate their success.

It comes as Queen’s Film Theatre (QFT) confirmed it will host two special screenings and a Q&A session of the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning comedy short film. The event will take place on World Down Syndrome Day on Tuesday.

James, who has been dominating headlines after becoming the first person with Down Syndrome to win at the Academy Awards, will be the among cast to take part in the Q&A session alongside O’Hara and Paddy Jenkins as well as the film's two directors with 25 per cent of proceeds from the special screenings to be donated to Mencap.

James' father Ivan Martin told The Irish News that he was "really looking forward" to welcoming his son home.

"They're due to come into Dublin mid-afternoon on Thursday and then there's talk about them doing an event at the QFT in Belfast," he said.

"They are all very tired to be honest. They weren't allowed to do any interviews on Monday and then the next two days have been back-to-back interviews.

"But I'm really looking forward to getting James home, it feels like they have been away for ages. He did himself and us proud, we are just so delighted for him."

Belfast actor James Martin at home as he prepared to jet off for the Oscars. Picture by Mal McCann
Belfast actor James Martin at home as he prepared to jet off for the Oscars. Picture by Mal McCann Belfast actor James Martin at home as he prepared to jet off for the Oscars. Picture by Mal McCann

The team behind the short film said it was looking forward to basking in its success with a cinema tour of Ireland.

Belfast film-maker White told PA news that "we're doing a big cinema tour of An Irish Goodbye, and we're really excited for that".

"We're coming back to Belfast and then we're in Dublin on March 24-25," he said.

Co-director Berkeley said they would be doing special gala screenings, including Q&A sessions with the cast and crew.

"There has been a lot of interest from people asking when they can see the film, so we wanted to give people the opportunity to see it in a cinema," he said.

He added that it had been "a real whirlwind" since Sunday night.

"Being in those rooms is bizarre, particularly the Vanity Fair afterparty, it was such a small room and it felt like everyone apart from us was stratospherically famous, everywhere you turn, you're setting eyes on one of your idols," he said.

"Luckily we had the boys (their Oscars) with us, so that was a good calling card, that little shiny man is magnetic and people would come over to say congratulations and strike up a conversation with you.

"People were excited to meet us and hear about what things we wanted to go on and do next.

"The industry, especially in America, puts a lot of weight behind the Academy Awards, particularly for emerging film-makers, they look to that as the young blood coming through.

"Hopefully we can capitalise on those opportunities because there are lots of things that we want to do. We don't want this to be the last interaction with this (Academy Awards). We want to end up there again."

White added that there had "not been a lot of sleep in the last few days, there has been a lot of tears, celebrating, dancing and shouting".

"We'll be back for St Patrick's Day, we're buzzing to get back to Belfast to celebrate it," he said.

Tom Berkeley, left, and Ross White pose with the award for best live action short film for An Irish Goodbye. Picture by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Tom Berkeley, left, and Ross White pose with the award for best live action short film for An Irish Goodbye. Picture by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Tom Berkeley, left, and Ross White pose with the award for best live action short film for An Irish Goodbye. Picture by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Shot entirely on location in Northern Ireland, the black comedy follows the story of two estranged brothers coming to terms with the death of their mother. James stars as Lorcan, alongside Newry-born actor O'Hara, who plays his older brother Turlough.

Asked whether they realised as they were filming An Irish Goodbye how well it would do, Berkeley said they felt a spark and love within the crew and cast.

"The first moment we got Seamus (O'Hara) and James together in a room, there was something really special about their relationship and their rapport they were able to build very quickly," he said.

"It felt like that chemistry was going to drive the film into the place it got to, we were aware it was something special, but we never thought it would get this far."

For information on cinema screenings of An Irish Goodbye, please visit https://www.floodlightpictures.co.uk/screenings.