Oscar win 'fantastic' way to celebrate birthday, says An Irish Goodbye star James Martin
An Irish Goodbye star James Martin said it has been a "fantastic ride" after winning an Oscar and celebrating his birthday on the same day.
The 31-year-old was serenaded with a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' from Hollywood's biggest stars after picking up the prestigious award for best short film on Sunday evening.
"It's amazing, not just winning an Oscar, but especially on my birthday - fantastic," he said.
"It's nice just to be included, and meeting up with Colin Farrell at the Baftas and again at the Oscar's, Brendan Gleeson and everyone else, they've just been very kind and nice to have that special bond with them really.
"It's amazing how not just going on stage and seeing your work colleagues and friends, but they actually mean something to us, it's the closeness of that and I think that's really nice."
Asked whose idea the song was, James Martin pointed at co-director of An Irish Goodbye Ross White and said: "This fella here".
Ross explained: "In the moment, we always said, look, today there's two very important events, the Oscars, but more importantly, there's James Martin's birthday.
"We wanted, when we got up there, to celebrate this man and use our small amount of time to sing this man Happy Birthday because he deserves it, he's a star."
An Irish Goodbye follows the story of two estranged brothers coming to terms with the death of their mother.
The black comedy was shot entirely on location in Northern Ireland, with scenes set amid the rural landscape of Co Londonderry, Saintfield and Templepatrick.
Co-director Tom Berkeley said they were "incredibly excited" to attend the Oscars and said winning was "beyond the icing on the cake".
He went on: "We've all grown up watching the Oscars.
"It's something as young filmmakers you don't really expect to be here at this stage in your career, we were incredibly excited, just a lot of pride to be here with these lads.
"We've been on this journey together for two years and for it to end up here is beyond the icing on the cake."
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