Iftas: Small Things Like These beats Kneecap to win best film award

Cillian Murphy wins award for best actor for second year in a row while Saoirse Ronan picks up two gongs

Cillian Murphy at the Irish Film and Television Academy Awards ceremony at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre on Friday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Fri Feb 14 2025 - 22:24

Tim Mielants’s Small Things Like These, a searing adaptation of Claire Keegan’s eponymous novella, unexpectedly slipped past Rich Peppiatt’s much-fancied Kneecap to take best film at a rainy Irish Film and Television Academy (Ifta) awards ceremony in central Dublin (or the “All-Ireland final for people who are useless at sport,” according to sparky host Kevin McGahern).

Starring Cillian Murphy as a coal merchant in 1980s New Ross who uncovers secrets about the Magdalene laundries, the film attracted large audiences in its domestic run during the summer.

[ Oscars 2025: Kneecap's failure to get a nomination is a genuine upsetOpens in new window ]

Murphy managed the rare feat of back-to-back best actor wins here. Twelve months after triumphing for Oppenheimer, the Cork actor was back at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre to take a deserved prize for a film he produced.

On the stage he amusingly noted that a full three actors from the Northern Irish romp were up against him. “Sorry Kneecap,” he said. “They had me outnumbered.”

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Peppiatt won the award for best director, one of four Iftas to go the way of his film. “This is the second best thing that happened to me today,” the English-born film-maker said from the stage. “Earlier on, at three o’clock, I had my Irish citizenship ceremony.”

Saoirse Ronan at the IFTA awards in Dublin on Friday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

It was a big night for the nation’s established actors. Saoirse Ronan won twice: best actress for addiction drama The Outrun and best supporting actress for Steve McQueen’s second World War drama Blitz.

“I’m going to take this more as a symbol of how far we’ve come,” Ronan said, accepting her award for Blitz. Ronan brought fellow nominee Alisha Weir, teenage star of Abigail, on stage with her to accept the best actress award. “I’m so incredibly proud of her,” she said. “I’m bringing her up here because I know we’re going to see so much of her over her life.”

Peppiatt’s irreverent film, which premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance film festival a year ago, has proved a strong performer at awards season. It racked a scarcely believable 17 nominations at Ifta, including seven in acting categories. On Sunday night it competes in six categories at the British Academy of Film and Television awards (Bafta).

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Sarah Greene, Eva Birthistle and Sharon Horgan at the IFTA awards in Dublin on Friday. Photograph: Alan Betson

Ifta operates an eccentric system that has TV drama honoured on the same night as film. The big winners from the small screen were Sharon Horgan’s dramedy Bad Sisters and Disney’s Say Nothing, a ruthless tale of the Troubles.

Accepting the best actress award for Say Nothing, Lola Petticrew was defiant. “The first step in moving on and moving forward would be providing decent mental health facilities, investment in services and a proper standard of living for all working-class people in the North,” she said.

Bad Sisters just snuck past the Say Nothing to take best drama.

In recent years the Iftas have taken place in a quiet corner of April or May, sometime after Oscar fever has died down, but this year they returned to the heart of awards season. That did mean the red carpet had to be moved indoors for a warmer, but considerably more cramped, celebrity experience.

Andrew Scott at the IFTA awards in Dublin on Friday. Photograph: Alan Betson

Andrew Scott, nominated for Ripley, talked to The Irish Times about playing composer Richard Rodgers opposite fellow Dubliner Simon Delaney’s Oscar Hammerstein II, Rodgers’s lyricist, in Richard Linklater’s upcoming Blue Moon.

“It’s a really, really interesting premise,” he said of the project. “A really interesting cinematic device. And Richard Linklater is a bit of a legend.”

Alisha Weir addressed rumours she is to play the young Dorothy in the sequel to Wicked. “There definitely is a lot of rumours for sure,” she said, cryptically. “How cool would that be? I am a big fan of Wicked. It’s the most incredible film. I love musicals.”

Told there was time for just one question, Kneecap quipped: “Celtic or Rangers?” You’d expect nothing else.