It has been included among 15 films shortlisted for the International Feature category in the 2025 Oscars, after The Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) selected the film for Ireland’s official submission.
The trio’s Sick in the Head has also been shortlisted with 14 others for Best Original Song.
The film is based on a semi-fictionalised account of how the west Belfast rap group was formed.
Nominations will be announced on 17 January ahead of the awards ceremony, set to take place on 2 March in Los Angeles.
The film dominated the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA), winning seven awards, including Best British Independent Film.
It also won Best Debut Screenwriter for Rich Peppiatt and Best Joint Lead for trio Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, and JJ Ó Dochartaigh.
Reaction to the movie’s success has been, shall we say, predictable from the usual sources. The Daily Mail headline is: Anti-British Irish-language movie funded by UK public money wins Best British Film gong.
The Newsletter has gone with Kneecap Oscar nod slammed: Leading Troubles historian labels biopic of controversial Belfast rappers a good way to put people off the Irish language, as movie shortlisted for Best Foreign Film.
The whole point of the Kneecap antics is to wind people up and provoke a reaction. Controversy is a PR strategy as old as time itself.
I enjoyed the movie; it was pretty bonkers in a good way. If you have not seen it, you can watch it for free if you have Amazon Prime. It is pretty graphic, so maybe it is not one to put on for your granny after Christmas lunch—unless your granny likes a bit of sex, drugs, and rap music, in which case she will love it.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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