Benjamin Cleary, the man behind Academy Award nominated short film Stutterer, has spoken about his shock at being nominated, as well as Oscars nerves.
The Dublin-born writer and director made Stutterer on a meagre budget of five thousand pounds sterling, and it picked up an Academy Award nod for Best Live Action Short Film.
Speaking to RTÉ at a pre-Oscars event in Hollywood, he opened up on the moment he discovered he had been nominated, saying: "I was sitting there with a mate in the edit and I just flicked onto my emails and suddenly saw all these mails and clicked into one and it was like 'You're shortlisted for the Oscars'.
"It was just an incredibly surreal moment. Me and my mate were sort of falling off our chairs and giggling like school girls!"
Cleary wrote, directed and edited the film, so is he feeling nervous ahead of Sunday night's ceremony? "I'll be mad nervous when it's getting announced", he said.
The 88th Academy Awards take place on Sunday February 28, with highlights being broadcast on RTÉ 2 at 9pm on Monday February 29.
