An Oscar tribute to Ken Branagh and the city in which he was born, Belfast

News Letter editorial on Tuesday March 29 2022:
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

It has been a long time coming for Kenneth Branagh.

The actor turned director already enjoyed transatlantic fame as a huge artistic talent back in the 1980s when he was on the front cover of Time magazine, dubbed ‘the man who would be [Laurence] Olivier’.

Since then Sir Kenneth has had eight Academy Award nominations, before finally picking up his first Oscar on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

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There is a symmetry to Branagh’s career, having being launched in a Belfast-centred screen production and then reached its peak in one too.

Sir Ken, 61, is remembered by older local audiences for his role in the much loved Billy plays, adapted for TV from Graham Reid texts, about a Protestant working class family in Belfast. Now he has picked up a statuette for a film that is simply called ‘Belfast’.

The production has had a warm reception in Europe and north America and received multiple nominations in the major film ceremonies, now including the Academy Awards.

It has been popular at home too, albeit not to everyone’s tastes — with the plotline perhaps at times being simplified and sentimentalised for international audiences.

But Sir Kenneth more than deserves his recognition.

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His career has been a glittering one, yet he has never become an arrogant figure. On the contrary, he is humble and been loyal to the city in which he was born, even in the heady years when he was rising towards Hollywood stardom.

His film ‘Belfast,’ with its first rank local cast and a homegrown soundtrack too (Van Morrison), is a tribute to Northern Ireland and its capital city and the resilience of the people who live here.

We know what a wonderful place this is, despite the trauma from the former troubled years. Now the distinguished Academy Award electors have recognised Branagh’s tribute to Belfast as its best original screenplay of 2002.

What a honour for Sir Ken and his subject matter.

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