Oscar Invites for Ronan, O’Connell, Baneham & Bono | The Irish Film & Television Network

Those who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2010 to the Academy’s roster of voting members.

Irish actress Saoirse Ronan received an invitation from the Academy following on from her roles in Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lovely Bones’ for which she was recently awarded an IFTA and Joe Wright’s ‘Atonement’. Saoirse is one of 20 actors offered Academy membership, joining the likes of ‘An Education’s Carey Mullligan, ‘Funny People’s Adam Sandler and Christopher Waltz for ‘Inglourious Bastards’.

Proof that Irish animation is ever on the rise Brown Bag Films’ Darragh O’Connell was one of only eight animators offered a place in the US Academy. The artist behind projects such as ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Give Up Yer Aul Sins’, Darragh is joined by fellow animation invitees such as ‘Shrek’s Ken Bielenberg and ‘Monsters. Inc’s Bob Pauley.

As to Visual Effects, Dubliner Richard Baneham received his Academy membership invite for his ground-breaking work on Steven Spielberg’s ‘Avatar’ and Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’. The other 11 visual effect artists listed include ‘Star Trek’s Russell Earl and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s Eric Barba.

Finally U2 members Bono and The Edge (real names Paul Hewson and David Evans) both featured in a list of only five musicians offered Academy membership. The former received his invitation on the strength of his work on ‘In the Name of the Father’ and the latter for ‘GoldenEye’ with both men also submitted for their work on the soundtrack for ‘Gangs of New York’.

Following the announcement of this year’s invited film-makers and actors Academy President, Tomi Sherak commented that: “The work of these individuals has been appreciated by moviegoers all around the world, the Academy is proud to invite each and every one of them.”

The Academy’s membership policies would have allowed a maximum of 180 new members in 2010, but as in other recent years, the several branch committees endorsed fewer candidates than were proposed to them. Voting membership in the organization has now held steady at just under 6,000 members since 2003. New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception at the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills in September.

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