Two For The Road tipped for an Oscar
Another Irish short f ilm could be bound for Academy Awards glory
THE writer and director of another Irish short film that is tipped for Oscar glory has spoken of the ‘very strange and unusual experience’ of casting himself, his father and mother in the autobiographical film.
Two For The Road has been receiving critical acclaim and is being tipped to follow in the footsteps of An Irish Goodbye, which won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short at the ceremony in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Two For The Road has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy Award after winning Best Drama Short at the Oscar-qualifying Galway Film Fleadh in summer.
Written and directed by Lochlainn McKenna and set in the late 1990s, the short film is based on the Corkman’s childhood memories and features the tale of a young boy, Owen, and his spontaneous and turbulent weekends away, around Ireland, with his father.
The award-winning director and writer said the experience of seeing his childhood being recreated on camera was a ‘surreal, really strange experience’ and was ‘cathartic’ for him.
Mr McKenna told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘One of the major benefits of the film was the way I set out, not knowing what would come from it… I realised it was also cathartic for other people.
‘When the film premiered in Galway, I had watched the film maybe 100 times at that stage… The first frame came on and I thought, “oh my God” and started crying.
‘It was just one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had,’ he added.
The film portrays some chaotic but often fun moments between father and son while they go on weekends away together around Ireland.
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The writer and director said the difficulty of recreating these memories ‘only hit me a couple of times’.
He told the MoS: ‘I was just transported back to being 10 years old, and they did such a good job with the production design that it was literally like a portal into the past.’
Mr McKenna said his father is supportive of the film and that their weekend adventures shaped him as a person.
‘There’s so much love between us and it was always important to me that the father character was never vilified,’ he said.
‘I didn’t realise at the time that those adventures were probably what was a grounding for me becoming a film-maker in the first place and making this film.
‘That’s where the adventuring spirit and being a bit rogue and taking chances is all part of being a film-maker,’ he added.
Two For The Road stars Ewan Morris, who plays Oscar, and The Stunning front man, actor Steve Wall, who plays the father, Hugh. Dubliner Natalie Britton plays the role of ‘Oscar’s mum’.
Mr McKenna said: ‘It was a very strange and unusual experience trying to cast myself, my father and my mother.
‘It was just a strange process to do that, but it was always really important to me not to care too much about the likeness and not try to cast someone who looked like me or looked like my father.’
The director said trying to find the perfect actor to portray the role was more important and that Ewan Morris took to the film-making world ‘like a duck to water’. He said being able to give a young person experience in the industry was ‘heart-warming’, and that it was Ewan’s ‘first time
acting on camera’.
‘I thought, “Oh my God” and started crying’