The stars of this year’s affair included the filmmaker behind Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay,  Belfast’s Jamie Dornan and up-and-comer Dónall Ó Héalai from Galway.

Hollywood veteran Mary Steenburgen was on hand to present Adam McKay with his Oscar Wilde Award, praising him for his ability to be “outrageously funny” and “still have the heart and the passion to make films about the environment, about hypocrisy.”

The film, one of the most successful in Netflix’s history, has received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

McKay, who has previously spoken about his links to Cork, referred to his family ancestry from Northern Ireland on the night, and recalled how a mould that infected the peat caused them to move to Nebraska. McKay, who now has a home in Cavan, also spoke of how Catholic shame, pain and dysfunction led him to want to write.

“I just love the Irish people,” he said. “I’m going back there soon to write another script.”

Richard Curtis, the writer of classic romantic comedies like Love Actually, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’ Diary, honoured Jamie Dornan on the night.

Curtis joked that Dornan couldn’t possibly be a nice person because “in my experience, good-looking people normally haven’t got much to recommend them.” But then he checked out Jamie’s work and came to see that he was “another genuinely great Irish actor, subtle dangerous, charming, a chameleon.”

In accepting the award, Dornan revealed he’d been asked a few times before to receive this award, but he didn’t feel that he has enough good work. 

“Fourteen years ago, I saw some unbelievably worthy work when they used to show a reel, and I thought one day.” But this year, he was disappointed because, “they didn’t do a f**king reel.” 

He then joked that he would instead have to act out his entire career for the audience, and pulled out a set of handcuffs, saying “I’ll start with something you’re familiar with.” 

JJ Abrams honoured Belfast  filmmaker  Kenneth Branagh, who recently broke records by becoming the first person nominated in seven Oscar categories. Branagh, unfortunately, had to miss the event, and will miss the Oscar’s, due to a positive Covid-19 test.

Director Reinaldo Marcus Green presented the Wilde Card Award to Galwegian Dónall Ó Héalai. Green spoke of Ó Héalai’s total physical transformation for the Irish-language film Arracht and said that when he was a struggling filmmaker in New York, it was Donall who encouraged him to keep going, telling him he was “so close.” 

In accepting is award, Ó Héalai, talked about how he too almost gave up acting, and when he stopped chasing his dream, he was sent the script for Arracht, the first ever Irish language film to portray the Famine and how he felt that while shooting that film, “the dignity of our ancestors was with us the entire shoot.” 

At the Oscar Wilde Awards