A nation holds its breath - again: Will An Cailín Ciúin win Best International Feature at the Oscars?

The husband and wife team behind An Cailín Ciúin, writer-director Colm Bairéad and producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi, tell Esther McCarthy just why the Oscars feel a little like Italia 90

Young actor Catherine Clinch in An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) - up for an Oscar for Best International Film

This year’s Oscars have a distinct ‘Italia ’90’ feel in Irish film circles as the country celebrates a remarkable 14 nominations for Irish talent and titles.

Irish storytelling is front and centre at the world’s biggest celebration of movies – and at the heart of it all is a little film, the proverbial obscure player that has charged all the way to the finals.

An Cailín Ciúin is anything but quiet as the low-budget Irish-language feature continues to win over movie goers around the world. Following its huge success at Irish cinemas, the film has now been released in several countries worldwide – most recently the US, where it opened to rave reviews.

For the film’s husband-and-wife team, writer-director Colm Bairéad and producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi, it has been a remarkable year, following the movie’s debut at the Berlin film festival last spring.

Colm Bairéad, writer-director, and Cleona Ní Chrualaoi, producer of An Cailín Ciúin.

'THE ITALIA '90 VIBES'

As well as the nomination for An Cailín Ciúin for Best International Feature, Irish-shot drama The Banshees of Inisherin secured an impressive nine nominations including for Best Picture and for actors Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan. Paul Mescal joins Farrell in the Best Actor category and there are also Irish nominees in the shorts, visual effects and editing categories.

“It feels like there’s a world cup buzz about it. Even when the nominations were being announced, people were saying: ‘a nation holds its breath’,” smiles Ní Chrualaoi as she and Bairéad prepare for the biggest night in film.

Their extraordinary achievement has been bettered by the fact they are joined by so many of their countrymen.

“It’s almost like we’re all a team and maybe it’s furthering the Italia ’90 vibes – whenever we’re at these events we seem to gravitate towards each other,” adds Bairéad.

“We don’t know Colin and Brendan all that well, but it feels like there’s sort of a love there, an immediate willingness to embrace us and to be together at these things. There’s a really great goodwill I think amongst all that group. When they call out all the nominees and then whenever there’s an Irish one, there’s a particularly big cheer going up. It feels really special – it feels like you’ve got a bit of a home crowd almost.”

Made under the Cine4 funding scheme to support films Irish language films, which is backed by TG4, Screen Ireland and the BAI, An Cailín Ciúin is spearheading a remarkable growth in Irish-language cinema. It follows the success of Famine-set drama Arracht and Cork filmmaker Pat Collins’ acclaimed drama, Song of Granite.

Bairéad’s first feature film, released here by Break Out Pictures, is adapted from Claire Keegan’s novella, Foster, and is set during one girl’s hugely formative summer in 1980s Ireland. A quiet girl from an overcrowded and dysfunctional family, Cáit (played by Catherine Clinch) finds her life changed when she goes to stay with relatives for the summer. It heralds a remarkable debut from the young Clinch, who had never acted to camera before, and strong performances from Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennett.

Bairéad started out making short films through other schemes for TG4 marking the beginning of his relationship with the channel. Commissioning editors there would put him in touch with producers for TV work. After directing the feature-length docudrama, Murdair Mhám Trasna – which told of the slaying of a family in the West of Ireland in 1882 – Bairéad set about looking for a subject for his first feature drama. Both he and Ní Chrualaoi fell in love with Foster and began to develop the film through their production company, Inscéal.

COMMITMENT

Raised in a bilingual household where his father spoke Irish, Colm and Cleona – also an Irish speaker – are now raising their two young boys bilingually. Getting the film to the Oscar–nominations after originally making a shortlist of 15 international features – required a huge amount of effort, commitment and support from family and friends, they say. They believed in the film, and wanted it to reach as wide an audience as possible.

As well as travelling on the international festival circuit, the couple have made several trips to LA to show the film to Academy members. LA-based peers, including fellow Oscar nominee Kerry Condon, introduced the film.

“We kind of think of this film as our third child, in terms of believing in it,” says Bairéad. “It’s the same way that you do for your own child – you’ve always believed in your child, and you want to do the best for them and help them in whatever way you can. That’s how we felt about the film, that we never gave up on it.

“I guess we’ve given our all to it, really,” adds Ní Chrualaoi. “It’s been a challenge trying to juggle the children and the film, but it’s been so exciting as well.

“It’s been such a great adventure – and we’re sharing this journey together as well, which is amazing. We were only saying the other day, it would be harder nearly if one of us was doing it, and the other wasn’t. It’s easier because we understand the pressures, the challenges. Then we can share in the amazing success and the joy and the excitement together.

“It’s the ripple effect as well with everybody, all our families, they’re all so happy for us, and everyone in the film industry, and then the country. We feel so supported by everybody.”

Colm Bairéad and Cleona Ní Chrualaoi on the night of The Quiet Girl's New York premiere

SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND STARS

There’s been a lot of fun along the way to the Oscars. By attending glittering events such as the BAFTAS and the Oscars Luncheon, they’ve got to meet some of the biggest movers and shakers in Hollywood. Cate Blanchett, they discovered, is a big fan of the film, while other icons they’ve had conversations with include Steven Spielberg – who told them the film was on the top of his to-see list –and acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins, who loved it so much he had cinematographer Kate McCullough on his podcast.

“We met Cate Blanchett at the London Critics Circle Awards. She’d seen the film and she loves it,” said Ní Chrualaoi.

The Australian double Oscar winner had plenty of kind words for its young star.

“She was telling Catherine on the night about how much she loved the film and how much she enjoyed Catherine’s performance. It’s amazing that these stars in our eyes have either watched it or are going to watch the film.”

They could never have imagined in the early days of production that they would end up chatting with Spielberg at the Oscars luncheon. Yet, they always had ambitions to make the best film they could – and dared to dream big when the strong early word of mouth built.

“We were just very focused on making the film and trying to make a film that we would like first of all, something that we could be proud of,” says Bairéad of the shoot. “I don’t think you think that far ahead. It’s not really useful to you in the moment when you’re actually making something. Once we got the film put together and in the shape that it was actually resembling the [final] film, at whatever point that was in the edit, we did realise that we had something kind of special on our hands, you know?

“You do temper your expectations – that’s just a natural instinct, I think, to temper a little bit. Or certainly I do. Cleona early on had greater belief in the potential of the film, whereas I was trying to downplay it. She was like, no: ‘I think this film can go really far’. And, as with most things she was right!” he smiles.

The duo always felt that if people got the opportunity to see the film they would like it. The fact that it resonated so hugely with Irish audiences allowed them to engage with fans through the film’s social media platforms. That drove international curiosity and interest as the film was released in other countries, and is now shortlisted for the biggest night at cinema’s world stage.

“There were times when, six months ago, we would say to each other: ‘Let’s dream for a minute. Let’s dream that we got to the Oscars,” says Cleona. “Then come back to reality and say, what are the chances? It could be highly unlikely but every step of the way, we got a step closer, making the shortlist and then getting nominated. We were just taking it one step at a time and hoping for the best.”