Jessie Buckley has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Hamnet with the Irish animated short Retirement Plan and Avatar: Fire and Ash's special effects lynchpin Richard Baneham also among the Irish Oscar nominees.
Watch: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal discuss Hamnet with RTÉ Entertainment's Alan Corr
Hamnet's Coleraine-born author Maggie O'Farrell has been shortlisted alongside director Chloé Zhao for their screenplay of O'Farrell's bestseller, which "tells the powerful love story that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet".
Buckley's co-star Paul Mescal missed out on a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Jessie Buckley: Ireland's star making waves worldwide
Were Buckley to win Best Actress for her performance as William Shakespeare's wife Agnes Hathaway - historically known as Anne - in Hamnet, she would become the first Irish woman to receive the honour. She was previously Oscar-nominated in 2022 in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in The Lost Daughter.
Jessie Buckley's mother, Marina, has said she had to pinch herself and say "that's my little girl up there", following her daughter's Oscar nomination for her role in Hamnet. @rtenews https://t.co/4BB0OpvHUw
— Entertainment on RTÉ (@RTE_Ents) January 22, 2026
Retirement Plan, directed by Dublin-based filmmaker John Kelly, sees Domhnall Gleeson voicing the lead character Ray, and is described as a "touching and funny examination of the beauty, curiosity and fears of our finite mortality". Co-written by Kelly and Tara Lawall, the short was commissioned by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and RTÉ and is available on the RTÉ Player.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline after his Oscar nomination alongside Retirement Plan producer Andrew Freedman, director Kelly said: "Someone gave me a bottle of champagne three months ago, now is the time to crack it, I think!"
Dubliner Richard Baneham, already a double Oscar winner for his work on Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, is again nominated in the Visual Effects category alongside his Avatar: Fire and Ash colleagues. "It's been a fun ride, for sure," Baneham told Liveline. "It's a nice time of year when the work is all done and you get to celebrate... whether you catch a trophy or not."
Director Yorgos Lanthimos's dark sci-fi comedy Bugonia, which includes the Dublin-based Element Pictures among its producers, has received four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Original Score (Jerskin Fendrix), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Will Tracy). As producers on the film, Element Pictures' Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe have received Oscar nominations in the Best Picture category.
Element Pictures has previously enjoyed Oscar success with Lanthimos's Poor Things and The Favourite and Lenny Abrahamson's Room. Producer Guiney told RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline: "It's very nice to be invited back. Four nominations is a great day out - particularly for Best Picture. We are very proud of everyone on the film and all the gang at Element Pictures."
The comedy-drama Blue Moon, which was made in Ireland and produced in association with the Dublin-based Wild Atlantic Pictures, has received two nominations: Best Actor (Ethan Hawke) and Best Original Screenplay (Robert Kaplow).
The vampire thriller Sinners has broken the all-time Oscars record with 16 nominations.
The Oscars, hosted by Conan O'Brien, will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, 15 March.
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