His first film as director, My Left Foot launched Jim Sheridan’s international career and launched Irish cinema onto the world stage with My Left Foot earning Academy Award victories for Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown and Brenda Fricker as Mrs Brown. The film also featured a remarkable performance by Hugh O’Conor as young Christie. It was an extraordinary achievement for a small production drawn from the autobiographical writings of a young inner-city Dubliner, Christy Brown, who had battled against cerebral palsy to become an accomplished artist. Sheridan is happy to admit that, with only a six-week course in filmmaking to his name, he learnt on the job. The apprentice became master very quickly.

Notes by Ruth Barton.