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Masterclass by acclaimed actor, director, writer and photographer, Hugh O'Conor (My Left Foot; Chocolat; Metal Heart).
Hugh O'Conor is an award-winning actor, writer, director, and photographer. He won the 1991 Youth in Film award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the young Christy Brown in the Oscar-winning My Left Foot (1990), and was nominated at the 2001 SAG awards for Best Ensemble for his performance as Pére Henri in the Oscar-nominated Chocolat (2000). In 2013 he won the Irish Times Theatre award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Fool in King Lear at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
After studying film at NYU as a Fulbright scholar, he wrote and directed several shorts with the Irish Film Board, including Corduroy (2010), which was selected for the Generation 14+ programme at the 60th Berlinale.
His debut feature, Metal Heart (2018), written by the Booker Prize-nominated Paul Murray, and his animated adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat (2018), directed by Sean Mullen and Meelis Arulep, were award-winners at their premieres at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2018. Metal Heart had its US premiere at the 2019 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Hugh was nominated for the Panavision Spirit award. The Overcoat, voiced by Cillian Murphy and Alfred Molina, was nominated for Best Short Animation at the 2020 IFTAs, and acquired internationally by Amazon Prime.
More recently, his short animated film Worry World (2023), directed by Jess Patterson, and voiced by Florence Adebambo and Domhnall Gleeson, won the Oscar-qualifying James Horgan award at its premiere at the 2023 Galway Film Fleadh. It went on to win the Audience Award for Best Animated Short at the 2023 Newport Beach Film Festival. It screens at the 2024 Dublin Film Festival in February, and upcoming festivals include Animation Dingle, CIACLA in Los Angeles and the Manchester Film Festival.
In addition to film and theatre work, Hugh has directed music videos for artists including the late Sinéad O’Connor, and was series director for Irish National Opera’s acclaimed 20 Shots of Opera, which was nominated for the Special Jury Prize at the 2021 Irish Theatre Awards.
In 2019 he received the Maverick Award from the Irish Film Critics’ Circle, as well as the Jim Sheridan Award for Achievement in Irish Film at the Irish Screen America festival in Los Angeles.
His photography has been exhibited at the RHA, the RUA and is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.