Jessie Buckley has become Ireland's first best actress winner at this year's Oscars.
The Kerry star already scooped four big awards for her role in 'Hamnet' and dedicated her speech to "the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart," thanking her family for teaching her to dream, and saying to her husband she wanted to "have 20,000 babies with you"
In a nod to a dress worn by Grace Kelly also to the Oscars in 1956, Buckley wore a Chanel elegant red and pink satin gown, with a Chanel diamond necklace, ring, and earrings, all rendered in 18-karat white gold.
Buckley won for her portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare (the wife of William Shakespeare) in the Chloé Zhao directed film, an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's best-selling novel, focusing on the couple's grief following the death of their 11-year-old son.
This was Buckley's second Oscar nomination but her first win. Her first nomination was in 2022 for Best Supporting Actress in The Lost Daughter. Her win cements her transition from a breakout talent (starting on the BBC talent show 'I'd Do Anything') to a Hollywood A-lister.
There were 10 nominations in total for Irish screen talent - including Best Picture, Best Animated Short, and Visual Effects.
Dubliner Richard Baneham along with Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett and Joe Letteri won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' but 'Retirement Plan', directed by Dublin-based filmmaker John Kelly and voiced by Domhnall Gleeson, was pipped at the post for Best Animated Short film, losing out to 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls'.
Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for playing twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler’s 'Sinners', a vampire horror film set in 1932 Mississippi. No actor has won the Best Actor Oscar for a dual role since Lee Marvin in 1965.
Hosted by Conan O'Brien, the first gong of the 98th Academy Awards was for Best Supporting Actress, which went to 75-year-old Amy Madigan in "Weapons", 40 years after her last Oscar nomination in 1986.
In only the seventh time in Oscars history there was a tie with two winners announced for Best Live Action Short with 'The Singers' and 'Two People Exchanging Saliva' both taking home gold.
The ceremony included emotional tributes from Billy Crystal for Rob Reiner and Barbra Streisand who sang for Robert Redford. Cassandra Kulukundis won the first-ever Oscar in a new category for her casting work on 'One Battle After Another' while 'Flow' won Best Animated Feature, marking the first-ever win for Latvia.
Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq delivered a high-energy performance of the Best Original Song nominee and the girl group HUNTR/X performed the other selected Best Original Song nominee which went on to win the Oscar, presented by Lionel Richie who won the Academy Award in the category in 1986 for "Say You, Say Me" from the film 'White Nights'.
