The Academy Awards feels like a holiday in LA. Traffic is weird, helicopters are everywhere, and you can’t get Sugarfish to save your life. But Oscars day is so much more than that. For one, it’s Daylight Savings. For another, it’s An Irish Goodbye star’s James Martin’s birthday. “This award is actually the second-most important thing about today, because it’s this man’s birthday,†said director Tom Berkeley, gesturing to Martin as his accepted the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. “He’s out here in Hollywood, wearing a leopard print suit jacket. We’d love to use the rest of our time up here to sing for James.†The crew of An Irish Goodbye then led the entire Dolby Theater in a (now copyright-free) round of “Happy Birthday to You.â€
In An Irish Goodbye, a black comedy about a family grieving the loss of their mother, Martin plays Lorcan, a man with Down’s syndrome who now must move in with his aunt after his mother’s death. “We spoke about the idea of the character having Down syndrome … once, and then we just didn’t really speak about it that much, because there were so many other factors of that character that were more interesting,†co-writer Ross White told BBC News ahead of the awards. “With representation, it’s not enough just to slap somebody in the thing and say we’ve done our job. The role has to be meaningful.â€