Patron: Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan and Irish Film London

“Irish Film London has developed a brilliant platform for Irish filmmakers and actors to showcase the breadth of their talent across the UK, activating not only the whole UK Irish bloodline but all movie lovers who have a passion for innovative and pioneering film. They have helped to cultivate a strong reputation for Irish film there, so I’ve always found there to be a warm reception on the ground and a recognition of the quality of our work. I’m very excited about becoming a Patron of the Irish Film London to support all its endeavours and look forward to being a part of its ambitious future.” - Saoirse Ronan, Golden Globe Award-winning Irish Actor 

We love working with Saoirse as our patron and we have to agree with New York critic, A.O. Scott's assessment of her as "one of the most formidable actors in movies today." Not only a great actress but a public voice for the most vulnerable people in society today, be they children, the homeless or sufferers of domestic abuse, we are proud to call Saoirse our patron.

Early Career

Saoirse Ronan first came to our screens at the age of nine in the popular RTÉ medical drama, The Clinic (2003). Her film breakthrough was as the precocious and prying younger sister, Briony Tallis, to Keira Knightley's Cecilia in director, Joe Wright's Atonement (2007) for which she received Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, aged only thirteen. She is one of the youngest ever actors to be nominated for an Oscar. 

Only child to Irish parents, the actor Paul Ronan, and mother, Monica, in New York, the family moved back to Ireland in 1997, settling in Howth. With Monica by her side to guide and protect her daughter through the vagaries of the film and television industries, Saoirse's acting career went quickly from strength to strength. In 2008, she was nominated for Irish Film and Television Award for her starring role in City of Ember, and nominated for a BAFTA for her critically acclaimed supernatural role in The Lovely Bones (2009). A year later she won an Actress in a Supporting Role IFTA for her part in The Way Back (2010). An epic tale of escape from a Siberian gulag in 1941, Saoirse plays Irene, a Polish orphan with a tragic secret, who has run away from a Warsaw commune when her parents are murdered by Russian soldiers. She also plays opposite one of our other patrons, Colin Farrell. 

Oscar Nominee

Saoirse has joined a pantheon of actors to be nominated for Oscars at tender ages. She was nominated for her second Oscar for her starring role in the hugely successful, Brooklyn (2015). She is only the second actress to be Oscar-nominated twice by the age of twenty-one (the first being Angela Lansbury!) only the second actress to be nominated for three Oscars by the age of twenty-four (the other being Jennifer Lawrence) for her role in Lady Bird (2017), written and directed by Greta Gerwig. For playing the eponymous heroine of this quirky coming-of-age story, Saoirse won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical and an IFTA for Best Actress in a Lead Role, alongside many other industry nominations and wins. 

Recent Work

Saoirse has not slowed down in recent years, featuring in the latest Wes Anderson film The French Dispatch, where Saoirse is part of a stellar cast including Tilda Swinton, Kate Winslet, Elizabeth Moss, Frances McDormand and Bill Murray, among many other stars. In 2020 Saoirse also starred in, Ammonite, written and directed by Francis Lee, which has Saoirse again opposite Kate Winslet who plays infamous fossil hunter, Mary Anning. Saoirse, as Charlotte Murchison, is a young woman whose husband leaves her to convalesce in the older woman's care with unforeseen consequences as the women become fatefully attracted to one another. Saoirse is in good company, as she also shares the screen with another of our valued IFL patrons, the great Fiona Shaw

Future roles, and no doubt even greater acclaim, are to come in the future in films such as See How They Run, set to release later this year and Foe currently in preproduction. See How They Run see's a Hollywood film producer trying to adapt a popular play into a film. When members of the production are murdered, world-weary Inspector Stoppard and rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) find themselves in a puzzling whodunit. Saoirse is once again in great company and will be acting alongside a brilliant cast including Sam Rockwell, Adrian Brody, David Oyelowo, Ruth Wilson, and Harris Dickinson. Saoirse also hinted during her IFL podcast interview that she is currently writing her own film script, we've already seen so much talent from such a young age from Saoirse we cannot wait to see what this might be.