Benjamin Cleary - Oscar Winner 2016

2nd of March 2016 Pictured is Shan Christopher Ogilbie (producer) and Director Benjamin Cleary

Benjamin Cleary is an Irish writer, director, editor and producer from Dublin. He is best known for his short-film Stutterer that earned him an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards. Prior to moving to London to complete an MA in Screenwriting at the London Film School in 2011, Cleary attended UCD and also completed a Music & Audio Tech course in Pulse College in Dublin.

Still from The GreatFall

Early writing success for Cleary includes the script for the short film Trumpet which won the BlueCat Short Screenplay Competition in Los Angeles in 2012. In 2014, Ben was awarded the Irish Film Board Frameworks funding for The Great Fall – a short animation about a young raindrop's first fall to earth.

Still from STUTTERER

In 2015, Cleary wrote, directed and edited his first short film Stutterer starring Matthew Needham and Chloe Pirrie. Produced by UK-based Bare Golly Films on a budget of just £5,000, Stutterer tells the tale of a lonely typographer with a cruel speech impediment but an eloquent inner voice who must face his greatest fear when a woman he met online turns up unexpectedly. The film was a hit on the festival circuit picking up over 10 awards before winning the 2016 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

Still from Love is the Sting

A film Ben wrote called Love Is A Sting has also recently been long-listed for the 2017 Oscar after winning at the Cork International Film Festival. It is a part live-action, part animation film directed by Vincent Gallagher, narrated by Ciaran Hinds and produced by Failsafe Films.

press@ifta.ie