Irish Oscar Winners - The Full Roll Call With the 2026 Academy Awards approaching, Irish eyes are once again fixed on the Dolby Theatre, where Jessie Buckley could make history by becoming the first Irish woman to win Best Actress for her role in Hamnet. This year’s nominations include several Irish talents, such as Richard Baneham for visual effects in Avatar: Fire and Ash and producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe for Bugonia. Maggie O’Farrell is also nominated for Adapted Screenplay, while Irish animation is represented by John Kelly’s Retirement Plan in the Animated Short Film category. The list of Irish Oscar winners spans decades, highlighting the nation’s significant contributions to Hollywood. Cedric Gibbons, an Irish-American art director, holds the record for the most Academy Awards, with 11 wins in the Art Direction category. His work at MGM helped define the visual style of classic films, and he was nominated 39 times, reflecting the studio’s dominance in the craft categories during the golden age of cinema. George Bernard Shaw, the Dublin-born playwright, won an Oscar for Pygmalion in 1939, adding to his already impressive legacy that includes a Nobel Prize in Literature. He remains one of only two individuals to have won both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize, alongside Bob Dylan. Barry Fitzgerald, an Irish actor, made Oscars history in 1945 by winning Best Supporting Actor for Going My Way. He was also nominated for Best Actor in the same ceremony for his role, a rare double nomination that the Academy later discontinued. The film itself was a major Oscar success, winning Best Picture and Best Actor for Bing Crosby. Michèle Burke, from Kildare, became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Make-up in 1983 for Quest for Fire, sharing the honor with Sarah Monzani.#jessie_buckley #cedric_gibbons #george_bernard_shaw #barry_fitzgerald #michele_burke
