Irish stars Ciarán Hinds and Barry Ward are among the executive producers of the short film Three Keenings as it seeks to gain momentum in the race for next year's Oscars.
Directed and written by Oliver McGoldrick, Three Keenings had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and has qualified to be considered for the Oscars after winning the Tiernan McBride Award for Best Short Drama at the Galway Film Fleadh.
It stars House of Guinness actor Séamus O'Hara, who also starred in the Oscar-winning short An Irish Goodbye.
"Set across the rural funeral circuit of Northern Ireland, the film follows a struggling actor who takes on the role of a professional mourner," says the synopsis for Three Keenings.
"As he moves from wake to wake offering grief as a paid performance, the emotional distance he clings to begins to unravel."
The cast also includes Ciarán Hinds' sister Caitríona Hinds, Seán Kearns, Carol Moore, Niall Cusack, and Olivia Nash.
"Three Keenings is a beautifully structured, succinctly told, and terrifically shot short film by Oliver McGoldrick about a professional grieving service for funerals in Ireland - wry and very witty, it's a perfectly balanced mixture of humour and pathos, with a bang-on central performance by Séamus O'Hara," said Ciarán Hinds.
"For me, this is a remarkable short film full of warmth, humanity, and a disarming mix of humour and pathos," said fellow executive producer Barry Ward. "It's an impressively assured piece of work, far beyond the filmmakers' years, and I'm genuinely excited to see what this team creates next."
Writer-director Oliver McGoldrick, who worked as a doctor before pursuing a career in film at the New York University (NYU) Tisch Graduate Film Program, described himself as "thrilled" to have Hinds and Ward on board as executive producers of his debut short.
"Their presence in the Irish creative landscape is of great importance, and having grown up with their work, it is an inspiration to me that they have forged a career working with some of the defining filmmakers of our time," added McGoldrick, who "grew up in the countryside outside Belfast".
A BAFTA North America Scholar and alumnus of the New York Film Festival Artists Academy, McGoldrick developed Three Keenings through the NYU Tisch program in collaboration with Swiss cinematographer Gianna Badiali, production designer Marianne Auvinet Gould (UK/France), and producers Natalie Remplakowski (Canada/US), Chloe Langton (Northern Ireland), and Cade Featherstone (UK).
Three Keenings has been acquired by entertainment giant Canal+ and is currently featured on Aer Lingus flights.
The 15 films on the Oscars shortlist for Live Action Short will be announced on Tuesday, 16 December.
The Oscar nominations will be announced on Thursday, 22 January 2026.
The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, 15 March 2026.
