Alex Fegan’s heart-warming Irish documentary Older Than Ireland has been deemed eligible for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards, and will fly the flag as the only Irish entry in the 145 eligible films.
Older Than Ireland, which won Best Irish Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh, is a landmark documentary that covers a hundred years of life in Ireland as seen through the eyes of thirty centenarians. These centenarians, as the title suggests are actually older than the state in which they now live. From the oldest Irish person ever on record, 113-year-old Kathleen Snavely to Ireland’s oldest man, 108-year-old Luke Dolan audiences will meet a colourful cast of characters from all walks of life from the four corners of Ireland.
Director Alex Fegan, who received an IFTA Rising Star nomination for his work, was joined by cameraman Colm Nicell in recording the stories of men and women countrywide, ranging in age from 100 to 109. This remarkable group of centenarians, all born before 1916, are the last generation to have borne witness to Ireland’s bloody transition from a newly formed fledging republic through to its development into a mature European state. These centenarians are our living history and it is through their wit, wisdom and philosophy that the film explores the more universal themes of life.
In order to qualify for contention films have to have a week long run in either Los Angeles or New York. Fegan’s film easily managed that as it has enjoyed multiple screenings in New York, as well as screenings across the US and Canada. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
Nominations for the 89th Oscars® will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2017. The 89th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre®.
Older Than Ireland is a Snackbox Films production, with funding from Bord Scannán na hÉireann / Irish Film Board. It is available to buy right now from their website.
The full list of eligible films:
The Abolitionists
Abortion: Stories Women Tell
All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone
Almost Holy
Amanda Knox
Among the Believers
Anne Frank Then and Now
The Anthropologist
Apparition Hill
Art Bastard
The Ataxian
Audrie & Daisy
Author: The JT Leroy Story
The Bad Kids
Be Here Now (The Andy Whitfield Story)
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
A Beautiful Planet
Beauty Bites Beast
Becoming Mike Nichols
Before the Flood
Behind Bayonets and Barbed Wire
Behind the Cove – The Quiet Japanese Speak Out!
Best and Most Beautiful Things
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened
A Billion Lives
Black Women in Medicine
Blood on the Mountain
Boy 23: The Forgotten Boys of Brazil
The Brainwashing of My Dad
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
By Sidney Lumet
The C Word
Cameraperson
Citizen Soldier
City of Gold
Class Divide
Colliding Dreams
Command and Control
Dancer
Danny Says
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War
Disturbing the Peace
Do Not Resist
Don’t Blink – Robert Frank
The Eagle Huntress
Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words
Eating You Alive
Equal Means Equal
Eva Hesse
Everything Is Copy – Nora Ephron: Scripted & Unscripted
A Family Affair
Finding Babel
Fire at Sea
The First Monday in May
Floyd Norman: An Animated Life
Francofonia
Generation Startup
Gimme Danger
Gleason
Harry & Snowman
Hate Rising with Jorge Ramos
Holy Hell
Hooligan Sparrow
How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change
Huntwatch
I Am Not Your Negro
Indian Point
Into the Inferno
Iron Moon
Ivory. A Crime Story
The Ivory Game
Jim: The James Foley Story
Kate Plays Christine
Keepers of the Game
Landfill Harmonic
The Last Man on the Moon
Life, Animated
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
Look at Us Now, Mother!
The Lovers and the Despot
Magnus
Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing
Marinoni: The Fire in the Frame
Mavis!
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Miss Sharon Jones!
The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
My Love, Don’t Cross That River
National Bird
National Parks Adventure
Never Surrender
Newtown
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Notes on Blindness
Nuts!
O.J.: Made in America
Off the Rails
Older than Ireland
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice
On the Map
100 Years, One Woman’s Fight for Justice
Our Last Tango
Presenting Princess Shaw
The Red Pill
Rigged 2016
The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip across Latin America
Rooted in Peace
The Ruins of Lifta
Seasons
The Seventh Fire
Shadow World
Silicon Cowboys
Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang
Solitary
Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four
Starving the Beast
The Syndrome
Thank You for Your Service
Theo Who Lived
They Will Have to Kill Us First – Malian Music in Exile
13th
This Is Life
Tickled
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
Tower
The Trans List
Trapped
Trezoros: The Lost Jews of Kastoria
USS Indianapolis The Legacy
The Uncondemned
Under the Gun
Under the Sun
Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro
Unlocking the Cage
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe
Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
We Are X
Weiner
When Two Worlds Collide
The Witness
Zero Days