IFTA Awards: Cillian Murphy wins Lead Actor gong for role that 'closed a circle' 

Winner of Best Lead Actor in a film at the 2025 IFTA Awards is Cillian Murphy - Small Things Like These. Picture Andres Poveda

Making the film Small Things Like These was like the “closing of a circle” on his acting journey since his breakout role in Disco Pigs, Cork actor Cillian Murphy said after winning the Lead Actor gong for films at the Irish Film and Television Academy awards.

When asked if the role - where he starred opposite fellow Corkonian and Disco Pigs co-star Eileen Walsh made him reflect on his career, the Douglas native told the Irish Examiner: “Myself and Eileen have stayed really close friends, our kids are really good friends, and she’s moved back to Dublin now. And [the film] was like the closing of a circle… I’m such a huge admirer of her as an artist and as an actor, so it was like the universe was telling us to work together again.”