Kneecap's dream of walking down the red carpet at the 97th Academy Awards has ended, with the announcement of the Oscars nominations list. Having been long-listed in the Best International Feature and Original Song categories, the west Belfast hip-hop trio failed to make the final shortlist for either category, when the full list of nominees was revealed yesterday, January 23.
The band can take some consolation in the fact that their self-titled 'heightened reality' film is nominated for six BAFTA Fiilm Awards, and received 17 nominations from the Irish Film and TV Academy. The British Academy Film Awards are set to take place in London on February 16, while the IFTA awards ceremony will be staged at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre on February 14. Last year Kneecap, the film, received seven awards, including the top honour, Best British Independent Film, at the British Independent Film Awards
Posting on their social media channels following their Oscars snub, the outspoken group offered a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that voters might have been motivated by factors unrelated to the film's merits, writing, "Fuck the Oscars. Free Palestine" as a caption above a 'doctored' image of a left-wing political pamphlet from the 1990s - titled 'The British Media and Ireland' - which sought to analyse British media coverage of Ireland affairs, and concluded that Irish voices were often silenced.
Fuck the Oscars.Free Palestine. pic.twitter.com/i3yc7gYkTuJanuary 23, 2025
Speaking with Louder late last year, DJ Próvaí joked, "if we win an Oscar, we’ll take it to Cash My Gold, melt it down and get some gold teeth made.”
"Maybe Tom Hanks wasn’t ready for Kneecap smoking a joint on the red carpet,” the film's director Richard Peppiatt joked to The Guardian in the wake of the Oscars nominations announcement. "They didn’t get their big moment. I am not ecstatic, but we’ve achieved far beyond what we could have expected a year ago. It’s a controversial film, but we will go again and next time we will get there. We have the Baftas and Iftas [Irish film and TV awards] to come. I think this is an amazing moment for the local, indigenous industry."
Kneecap can also look forward to another big night out later this year, having today announced a huge arena show In Ireland. The Northern trio will play Dublin 3Arena on December 17, having already sold out their summer show in the city at Fairview Park. Tickets for the 3Arena show go on sale at 10am on January 31l, and will be available here.
The band are also set to play a number of UK shows this year, most notably a headline show at the Wide Awake festival in London on May 23. They are currently working on their second album, with producer Toddla T.
