The award-winning Kneecap movie has been shortlisted for nomination in two categories at next year’s Academy Awards.
The film biopic, which is based on the west Belfast rap group’s early beginnings, has been shortlisted in the Best International Feature Film category.
The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) had selected the film as Ireland’s official submission to the category for the 2025 Oscars.
The film will now go on to the next stage of the nominations, where members of the Academy will select the final five nominees.
The final nominations will be announced on January 17 ahead of the awards ceremony on March 2.
Kneecap’s song, Sick in the Head, has also been shortlisted in the Original Song category. A total of 89 songs were eligible in this category and 15 were chosen.
Directed by Rich Peppiatt, the comedy drama tells a semi-fictionalised tale of the rise to fame of the Irish language rap trio.
The group’s Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, Naoise Ó Caireallain and J.J. Ó Dochartaigh, known by stage names Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, play themselves in the movie, which also features X-Men star Michael Fassbender and Belfast’s Josie Walker.
Speaking about being shortlisted, Kneecap writer and director Rich 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 Oscars, 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 good fun, and making it to that hallowed Hollywood red carpet would certainly be a grand way to finish it all off.”
The Kneecap film was recently the big winner at the recent British Independent Film Awards, where it won seven gongs, including the top prize of Best British Independent Film.
Just last week the movie joined blockbusters including musical Wicked and sci-fi epic Dune Part Two in being nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award.
