Lenny Abrahamson

Lenny Abrahamson is an Irish Film and Television director. While at Trinity College Dublin he directed short videos with the Trinity Video Society, which he co-founded with Ed Guiney. He graduated in 1991 with first class honours (gold medal).

His first short film, 3 Joes, won the Best European Short Film Award at the 1991 Cork Film Festival and the Organiser’s Award at the 1992 Oberhausen Short Film Festival. He directed numerous commercials for television in Ireland, the UK and worldwide before taking the helm on his first feature film, Adam & Paul, a stylized downbeat comedy written by Mark O’Halloran and released in 2004. Adam and Paul won the Best First Feature award at the 2004 Galway Film Fleadh and the Grand Prix at the 2005 Sofia International Film Festival.

His second feature film, Garage, another collaboration with writer Mark O’ Halloran, was selected for Director’s Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and won the CICAE Art and Essai award. The film also won the awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Script and Best Actor at the 2008 Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs).

Lenny’s fourth feature, Frank, a comedy about a young wannabe musician starring Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson, was released in 2014, and earned him a British Independent Film Award nomination for Best Director.

Recently, Abrahamson directed Room (2015), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. The film also won the British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film.