Waking Ned Devine

Kirk Jones' Waking Ned Devine (Irish-released as Waking Ned) opened the 1998 Heartland Film Festival in the United States, winning the Audience Award, and earned Jones a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 1999 ceremony. The film grossed over $46 million worldwide on a budget of approximately $3 million — an extraordinary outcome for a small Irish-set comedy, and one of the highest-grossing British-financed comedy productions of its decade.

The film is the directorial debut of Kirk Jones, the British advertising director who had spent the 1990s making television commercials before his transition to features. He would go on to direct Nanny McPhee (2005), Everybody's Fine (2009) and What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012); none of his subsequent features achieved the commercial or critical level of Waking Ned, which remains the work he is principally remembered for.

The cast pairs Ian Bannen and David Kelly — both veterans of Irish stage and screen for over forty years at the time of shooting — in the central twin-friend roles. Bannen had been one of the most consistent Scottish-English screen actors since the 1960s; this was his last major lead before his death in 1999, less than a year after the film's release. Kelly continued working into his eighties, including a memorable role as Grandpa Joe in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). The film was shot largely on the Isle of Man rather than in Ireland — for production-cost reasons — although the screenplay is set in the fictional County Wicklow village of Tullymore. Cinematography is by Henry Braham.