Irish Film 'Once' Gets Oscar Nomination

The Irish film 'Once' has received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song Award.
Directed and written by John Carney, the nomination is for the song, 'Falling Slowly'.
Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in the leading roles and is a modern-day musical set on the streets of Dublin telling the story of a busker and an immigrant, who fall in love over an eventful week, as they write, rehearse and record a number of songs.
"Once is a film made as a modern day musical, so to receive the Best Original Song Oscar nomination is perfection and a tremendous validation of the film," said John Carney, Director, Once.
"When I first heard the song 'Falling Slowly' I thought this song is going to be massive and it was a luxury to have a song like this in my film. My life is determined by music and it will often be a three minute song that will decide my fate in this world. Songs are so emotional and sometimes a song is the perfect way to tell a story."
Once won the Audience Award for World Cinema at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival after it was discovered by Sundance programmers at the Galway Film Festival. The film has also been nominated for two Evening Standard Awards in the Most Promising Newcomer and Best Score categories.
Produced by Samson Films with funding from the Irish Film Board, it was listed as one of the top 10 independent films of the year by the US National Board of Review and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the prestigious Film Independent Spirit awards and has been short listed for the 20th European Film Awards. It scooped the top award at the 2Morrow Festival in Moscow which came with a $100,000 as well as winning the Story Award at the festival.
(DS)