Irish Film Awards 2009: Bobby Sands Drama Hunger

Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands in Hunger.

Irish Film Awards 2009: Starring Michael Fassbender, Steve McQueen’s Bobby Sands drama Hunger is the big winner

With six wins, Steve McQueen’s Hunger was the big winner at the 2009 Irish Academy Awards. The story of Irish republican prisoner Bobby Sands’ last days, Hunger won trophies for best film, best actor (Michael Fassbender, as Sands), Best Supporting Actor (Liam Cunningham), original score (David Holmes), production design, and sound.

Curiously, director Steve McQueen was passed over in favor of Lance Daly, whose Kisses follows two young runaways who find both thrills and some serious danger in the streets of Dublin. The best screenplay award went to Martin McDonagh for In Bruges. 2009 Irish Film Award winners: Feb. 14.

FILM CATEGORIES

Best Film
32A – Tommy Weir
A Film with Me in It – Alan Moloney & Susan Mullen
The Escapist – Alan Moloney & Adrian Sturges
* Hunger – Laura Hastings-Smith & Robin Gutch
Kisses – Macdara Kelleher & Lance Daly

Best Director
* Lance Daly – Kisses
Ian Fitzgibbon – A Film with Me in It
Martin McDonagh – In Bruges
Declan Recks – Eden

Best Screenplay
A Film with Me in It – Mark Doherty
Hunger – Enda Walsh
* In Bruges – Martin McDonagh
Kisses – Lance Daly

Best Actor
Colin Farrell – In Bruges
* Michael Fassbender – Hunger
Brendan Gleeson – In Bruges
Dylan Moran – A Film with Me in It

Best Actress
Jenn Murray – Dorothy
Kelly O’Neill – Kisses
Saoirse Ronan – City of Ember
* Eileen Walsh – Eden

Best Supporting Actor
* Liam Cunningham – Hunger
Stuart Graham – Hunger
Gerard McSorley – Anton
Peter O’Toole – Dean Spanley

Best Supporting Actress
Sarah Bolger – The Spiderwick Chronicles
Lesley Conroy – Eden
* Saoirse Ronan – Death Defying Acts
Ger Ryan – Dorothy

Best Feature Documentary
Dambé – The Mali Project – Dearbhla Glynn & Vanessa Gildea
Gabriel Byrne: Stories From Home – Pat Collins & Tina Moran
Saviours – Liam Nolan & Ross Whitaker
Seaview – Nicky Gogan & Maya Derrington
* Waveriders – Margo Harkin & Joel Conroy

Best International Film
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
* In Bruges
Man on Wire
WALL-E

Best International Actor
Casey Affleck – Gone Baby Gone
Josh Brolin – W.
* Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man
Ralph Fiennes – The Duchess

Best International Actress Award – People’s Choice
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
* Meryl Streep – Mamma Mia!
Kristin Scott Thomas – I’ve Loved You So Long
Emma Thompson – Brideshead Revisited

CRAFT/ TECHNICAL CATEGORIES (Film/TV)

Best Costume Design
Brideshead Revisited – Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh
Kisses – Leonie Prendergast
32A – Driscoll Calder
* The Tudors – Joan Bergin

Best Cinematography
Anton – Fergal O’Hanlon
A Film with Me in It – Seamus Deasy
Little Dorrit – Owen McPolin
* 32A – PJ Dillon

Best Film Editing
Eden – Gareth Young
Fight or Flight – Shane Sutton
* Kisses – J. Patrick Duffner
Raw – Ben Yeates

Best Make-Up & Hair
Dorothy – Joni Galvin & Muriel Bell
George Gently – Eileen Buggy & Morna Ferguson
Kisses – Liz Byrne
* The Tudors – Sharon Doyle & Dee Corcoran

Best Original Score
Anton – Anna Rice
Cherrybomb – David Holmes
* Hunger – David Holmes
Niko & The Way to the Stars – Stephen McKeon

Best Production Design
Dorothy – David Wilson
* Hunger – Tom McCullagh
The Other Boleyn Girl – John Paul Kelly
The Tudors – Tom Conroy

Best Sound
A Film with Me in It – Brendan Deasy
* Hunger – Ronan Hill & Mervyn Moore
Niko and the Way to the Stars – John Fitzgerald, Patrick Drummond & Caoimhe Doyle
Waveriders – Paul Maynes, Niall Brady & Garret Farrell,

Rising Star Award
Sarah Bolger
Lance Daly
* Michael Fassbender
Enda Walsh

Industry Lifetime Contribution Award
Documentary filmmaker George Morrison

“Irish Film Awards 2009: Bobby Sands Drama Hunger” notes

*last modified in January 2026.