Oscar winner Richie Baneham has been honoured in his home areas of Ballyfermot and Tallaght with two gold post boxes.
Last week, An Post painted the two postboxes gold to celebrate Richie's win at the Oscars for best visual effects for his work on Avatar: The Way of Water. Richie is a veteran animator who has worked on several big-name projects like The Lord of The Rings trilogy, the Chronicles of Narnia films, and more.
He studied Animation in Ballyfermot College of Further Education from 1990 until 1994, and is one of the country’s most successful animators and visual effects supervisors. And now there is a pillar box painted gold outside his former college in Ballyfermot to celebrate Richie's achievements in the film world, and there's also a second gold post box near his family home in Old Bawn in Tallaght.
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In a statement, a spokesman for An Post told Dublin Live: "We are proud to say we’ve marked Richie Baneham’s Avatar Oscar by painting the postbox at Ballyfermot College of Further Education on Ballyfermot Rd (Convent). Richie studied Animation in Ballyfermot College of Further Education from 1990 until 1994.
“An Post last turned postboxes gold for our Gold medal winners at the 2021 Paralympics and Olympics. Our postboxes have seen everything down through the years but not many get the chance to celebrate a genuine world beater like Richie," they added.
Ballyfermot College of Further Education's principal Cecilia Munro, recently told Dublin Live that Richie is a keen supporter of the college and has visited the college on a number of occasions during his return visits. He has met with current animation students offering advice, support and insights.
She said: “Richie came with an abundance of creativity to the college and the college just, I suppose, showed him the rudiments and allowed him to be creative.” Meanwhile, Richie’s proud father Michael also came to the college recently with his son’s new BAFTA award and spoke about his son’s achievements.
The college now has an impressive ten Oscar nominations among its former students, as Tomm Moore and Paul Young’s Wolfwalkers was nominated for an Oscar in 2021 and Nora Twomey was nominated for her directorial debut The Breadwinner in 2018.
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