Lenny Abrahamson has no formal training in film. He studied physics followed by philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin where he w on a foundation scholarship. Graduating in 1991 with first class honours (gold medal). While at college he began playing around with video through the Trinity Video Company – a video making student society he set up with Ed Guiney.
After graduating, he directed the 16mm Black & White short film '3 Joes' (written by Michael West and produced by Ed Guiney) which won the Best European Short Film award at the Cork Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Galway Film Fleadh and the Organiser’s Award at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, and which has been seen on television and at festivals all over the world. The money for ‘3 Joes’ came from a fund in TCD set up with earnings from ‘Educating Rita’ which was shot there. Without this fund ‘3 Joes’ would probably never have been made; in the early nineties it was very, very hard to get any film projects funded in Ireland. To give some idea of what it was like at that time, ‘3Joes’ was one of only two or three shorts made that year.
After a period of post-graduate study in philosophy at Stanford University, California Lenny returned home. Since then he has directed commercials for television in Ireland and worldwide through The Speers Film Production Company. Several of his commercials have won international awards. The best known are probably the Carlsberg ‘Nightclub’, ‘Flatmates’ and ‘Jason McAteer’ jobs.
His first feature film, 'Adam & Paul' (www.adamandpaul.com), written by Mark O’Halloran and produced by Speers Film with Element Films, was released in August 2004 and quickly became a critical and box office hit. In the same year it won the Galway film Fleadh as well as the being nominated for eight IFTAs, winning the award for best director. This year it played at the Berlin Film Festival as an official selection in the Panorama section and recently won both the Grand Prix and the FPRESCI (international critics) top prize at the Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria.
His second feature in 2007, Garage, also written by Mark O’ Halloran, was similarly critically acclaimed and won four IFTA Awards including Best Film, Script and Abrahamson’s second for Best Director. The filmmaker collaborated with O’ Halloran for the third time on the RTÉ four-part drama series Prosperity, cementing his reputation as a director highlighting people on the fringes of Irish society.
In 2012, Abrahamson released his third film What Richard Did, making a star from its young lead Jack Reynor and becoming the highest grossing Irish film of the year. The film received almost universal acclaim including a five-star review from The New York Times and picked up five IFTA Awards including Best Film, Script, Lead Actor and another for Abrahamson.
Abrahamson directed the film Frank, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He next directed the film adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel, Room (2015), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. The film was successful, both critically and commercially.
