We’re a proud little country here in Ireland, so when one of our own does well, you can count on us to showcase it!
Take the weekend just gone, for example, the annual Screen Irish and the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) awards took place and what a night it was for Irish talent.
However, for one person in particular it was a very big night. Yes, director Aoife McArdle took home the IFTA Rising Star Award for her work on Severance.
The hit show was co-directed by Aoife and Hollywood actor Ben Stiller.
Congrats Aoife!! https://t.co/bXpKnuu5eG
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) May 8, 2023
So, when it came to Aoife winning big at the IFTA’s, old friend and work colleague Ben couldn’t help but get in on that action and share his pride.
Retweeting a post from the Irish Film & Television Academy, Ben wrote: “Congrats Aoife!!”
It’s clear the pair struck quite the cord with one another while working together on the show, with Aoife previously admitting how “generous” Ben was.
“I got autonomy over how I was going to put my episodes together on Severance, I got to add a lot of my ideas. Ben is really generous in that sense, he’s collaborative and wanted to really push the creative limits and make it as stand-out as possible,” she told the Irish Mirror.
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“He gave me a lot of room to add ideas to the episodes and the scripts, in particular visually, I got a lot of space.”
Having solely directed the three middle episodes of the nine-part season, Aoife admitted that the impetus was to keep the audience engaged right to the end.
“I was hyper-aware of that aspect because Ben was doing the first and last three. We talked about keeping that section as a bit of a rabbit-hole.
Adding: “We were surprised and happy that people were happy to go down that rabbit-hole and see it through to the end.”
Severance has since been renewed for a second season, though it is unknown when exactly we can expect to see it hit our screens.