Oscar-winner Emerald Fennell told RTÉ Entertainment that she hopes her film Promising Young Woman would spark important conversations as it is "about the culture we grew up in."
Fennell won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award at Sunday night's ceremony in Los Angeles. She has also been nominated for Best Director.
At the time of the movie's release, she told us that it is a film that she hopes will make audiences look at the treatment of men and women in society.
"It's absolutely a film about the culture we grew up in," she told RTÉ Entertainment.
"We as a society tend to tip the scales of justice towards men. We just do. It’s a natural inclination and one that’s come from thousands of years."
"People have received the film in the way that it was meant," she added. "Which is actually about how do we move forward, how do we forgive and move on?
"And I think the film says you can forgive and move on once people acknowledge something has happened and they apologise for it and actually the people in this film are only in trouble because they don't apologise and they double down and make excuses and that’s what this film is about.
"If people feel affronted by it or its portrayal of men then they may need to spend a bit more time empathising with how women have been treated."
Accepting her Oscar, Fennell's emotional speech included an apology for not having written one - she laughed that she first wrote one at the age of 10, but that not much of it was still relevant.
You can watch the 93rd Academy Awards on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 9:35pm tonight.
