Joy for Carlow's Saoirse at IFTA awards
BUT LATEST MOVIE 'THE LOVELY BONES' ATTRACTS MANY NEGATIVE REVIEWS
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YOUNG CARLOW ACTRESS Saoirse Ronan was awarded best lead role for her performance in 'The Lovely Bones' at Ireland's top movie awards on Saturday night despite the film's onslaught of negative reviews.
Saoirse, who turns 16 this April, scooped the Film Actress in a Lead Role at the Gala ceremony in The Burlington Hotel in Dublin. The award came as a consolation to the star as just 24 hours earlier she failed to win a BAFTA for Best Actress in London.
So many stars arrived in Dublin for the seventh annual Irish Film and Television Awards which saw 'The Eclipse' names as Best Film and Jim Sheridan picked up the award for Best Director for 'Brothers'.
Colin Farrell picked up the Best Actor award for his performance in Neil Jordan's 'Ondine'.
Reviews in the US for her latest film 'The Lovely Bones', which was released this week, have been consistently negative in the US where the film opened last month and critics started asking if this might damage her career.
Reviews for the screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's haunting novel came in a mixed bag with most film crictics turning their noses up at the film. It went on limited release in the US on December 11, followed by a wider one in January.
Since making her professional debut at the tender age of eight playing a sick child on RTE's The Clinic, Saoirse's experience of the entertainment industry has been almost entirely positive.
Minus her designer pink high heels by Nina Divito, she stood barefoot on the red carpet to pose with her award. She's currently bulking up to play a teenage assassin from eastern Europe in Joe Wright's action film Hanna. She is also set to appear alongside Colin Farrell in Peter Weir's wartime drama The Way Back, due out later this year.
- Lynda CONNOLLY
