In The Name of the Father was Jim Sheridan’s second film, his first being 1989’s My Left Foot, which itself was nominated for several Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (it won for Best Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis and Best Supporting Actress, Brenda Fricker). This film was a slightly fictionalized account of the Guildford Four, who were falsely convicted of an IRA pub bombing in 1974. They weren’t proven innocent until 1989. I don’t really want to get further into their story, as that would spoil the film entirely. In The Name of the Father was nominated for seven Academy Awards, although it failed to win a single category:  Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Supporting Actress Emma Thompson,  Best Supporting Actor Pete Postlethwaite, Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Director and Best Picture. It is currently #226 on IMDb’s Top 250 user-generated list. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: The Fugitive, The Piano, The Remains of the Day and winner Schindler’s List.

Read the rest of this entry →