Room

Lenny Abrahamson's Room was the Irish director's international breakthrough, made the year after his Sundance hit Frank. Emma Donoghue adapted the screenplay from her own 2010 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel of the same name, and it is rare for a novelist to hold the screenplay credit on the major adaptation of her own bestselling book and to be nominated for an Oscar for it.

Brie Larson won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the central role. Jacob Tremblay, then nine years old, played her son Jack and was for many the most surprising acting discovery of the year, though the Academy does not traditionally nominate children. The film earned four Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Cinematography is by Danny Cohen, who had shot The King's Speech; the score is by Stephen Rennicks.

It was a four-country co-production between Ireland, Canada, the UK and the United States: Abrahamson worked with Element Pictures in Dublin and Toronto-based No Trace Camping. It also led directly to Abrahamson directing Normal People for BBC and Hulu in 2020, with Element Pictures producing again. Room is one of the high points in the recent history of Irish-led international film-making, alongside the work Yorgos Lanthimos has made with the same producers.