Oscar nominee Richie Baneham is “an inspiration” to students who come through Ballyfermot College of Further Education.
That's according to College Principal Cecilia Munro after Richie’s father Michael came to the college with his son’s recently scooped BAFTA award and proudly spoke about his son’s achievements. Cecilia said: "If there was one thing I could tell Richie personally, the students looked at your BAFTA award, they met your father, and they were enthralled by how somebody coming from Ballyfermot could be so successful and so creative.
"And it gave them something to aim for and it was a vision – Richie is a vision of what success can look like for students coming through the college. The students are also looking up to his grounding. He's never forgotten Ireland, he's never forgotten his friends and he has never forgotten his family. And that to me speaks volumes about the character of Richie.”
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Richie 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. His first big break saw him work as an animator on The Iron Giant before establishing himself as a major player in Hollywood as animation supervisor for the second and third Lord of the Rings movies.
Cecelia also added the BAFTA winner is a keen supporter of the college and has visited the college on a number of occasions during his return visits, and 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.”
Richie is one of twelve Ballyfermot College animation graduates from the 1994 class, Cecilia said. They are working together in LA as part of a tight close knit Irish diaspora, and many of Richie's former classmates both in Dublin and LA are still connected and meet up whenever the opportunity arises.
Ballyfermot College now boasts ten Oscar nominations among its former students. 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.
And this year, they are proud to say that two of their graduates have the chance of snatching an award. The second nominee is Jill Beecher, who is up for the Production Design Award. Jill studied cinematography and film at the college 12 years ago and is already forging a highly successful career in Hollywood as an art director.
“She worked on three of the five Production Design nominees this year,” Cecilia said. “The three she worked on are Babylon, Elvis, and Avatar.
“I think that's really important. First of all, she's female. Secondly, she's a graduate of Ballyfermot College, but thirdly, she's highly successful in her role in Hollywood as an art director.”
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