Film forum off topic/random chat thread

Looking at Banshees getting all this awards love, and then The Wonder getting some too, I feel weirdly neutral about them.

I haven't seen Banshees yet, so I don't have an opinion on the film itself, but as far as them being Irish films.... I dunno.

Obviously An Cailín Ciúin is extremely Irish, so kind of unfair to compare them to it, but I just don't feel like Banshees or The Wonder are Irish films in the same way something like Wolfwalkers was, to use a recent example.

I'm not saying they're not Irish films either, to be clear, and obviously the majority of cast and crew are Irish, I'm just not able to muster the same excitement about the films themselves being nominated for things.

Anyone got any thoughts or feelings on it?

I think that's the thing about Banshees, and the reaction to it abroad, that makes me question it. It feels like the kind of film we used to make when we had our eye on appealing to as broad an audience as possible, instead of making things that were recognisably Irish to Irish people. (Doesn't help how much they're pushing "feckin" as a marketing tool, even on their FYC ads)

If you think of the most globally successful Irish things of recent years, Normal People and Derry Girls, they're very Irish, to the point people from other countries need explainers for a lot of things in them, from language to cultural oddites. They make me think we've moved beyond the "stage Oirish" we used to think we had to peddle to get an audience outside of Ireland.

As for The Wonder, I didn't personally like it that much, but I think the storyline kind of lent itself to having non Irish people telling it, so the fact it doesn't really feel like an Irish film is probably deliberate.