Belfast Film Festival is delighted to announce that rising Irish star Fionn O’Shea will join director John Butler at our screening of Handsome Devil this Wednesday at 6.30pm at the Queen’s Film Theatre.
A music-mad 16-year-old outcast forms an unlikely friendship with his dashing new roommate in this funny and observant coming-of-age tale from Irish novelist and filmmaker John Butler (The Stag).
Fionn O’Shea first captured the industry’s attention when he starred as ‘Seth Quinn’ in Steph Green’s 2009 short New Boy, which was nominated for an Oscar. Every role he has taken on since has garnered critical acclaim, positioning him as one of the most exciting young actors to watch.
Fionn recently completed filming Fox Searchlight’s drama The Aftermath, based on Rhidian Brook’s international best-selling novel of the same name. Fionn plays ‘Barker’, a cheerful young Lieutenant in the company of British Colonel ‘Lewis Morgan’ (played by Jason Clarke) who has been stationed in Hamburg after the Second World War to oversee post-war reconstruction of the city. Directed by James Kent and produced by Ridley Scott, the drama also stars Kiera Knightley and Alexander Skarsgård. The film is slated for release later in the year.
Prior to this, Fionn filmed new ITV1 contemporary drama series Innocent, from writers Chris Lang and Matt Arlidge. Fionn plays ‘Jack’ in the four-part series, the son of ‘David Coller’ (Lee Ingleby), an ordinary family man sent to jail for seven years after allegedly killing his wife, ‘Tara’. The series will be produced by TXTV and directed by Richard Clark. Tony Gardner, Daniel Ryan, Angel Coulby, and Hermione Norris also star and the series will TX in Autumn.
In April, Fionn will be seen in his first major lead role opposite Andrew Scott in John Butler’s highly praised coming of age film Handsome Devil, from Irish indie production company Treasures Entertainment. Fionn won the Rising Star award for his portrayal of ‘Ned’ at the Irish Screen America Festival and was nominated in the same category at the 2017 Dublin Film Festival, where the film was screened on the Closing Night. Critics singled out his performance, “O’Shea brings unexpected pluck and spry intelligence” wrote The Hollywood Reporter, while Screen International observed “[Fionn] shows immense poise and presence as he really gets under the skin of his character,” The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2016 and opened the Glasgow Film Festival on 15th February 2017. The film will be released theatrically by Icon in the UK and Ireland in April before a global release on Netflix.