Dublin's Kisses gets award nod for 'Best Foreign Film'

It has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and director Lance Daly is in good company alongside his fellow nominees, which reads like a who's who of Hollywood.

The awards ceremony celebrates indie films that have made their mark on the industry.

And the team behind Kisses is set to be catapulted into the limelight with their nod for Best Foreign Film.

A-listers Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams are all set to walk the red carpet at the ceremony next February.

But in spite of the fact that Kisses is an English language film, it has been nominated in the Foreign Film section, due to the fact that, as an American awards ceremony, it requires a certain amount of involvement by a US citizen in order to qualify for a mainstream category.

And while the film has taken the US by storm, it still required subtitles due to the thick Dublin accents.

Kisses' gritty storyline focuses on two teens growing up in poverty-stricken flats in inner-city Dublin, who vow to run away together after their troubled home lives force them to leave.

Producer Macdara Kelleher previously told the Herald that the film will be "partially subtitled".

"The kids starring in the film had never acted in anything before, so they didn't really use the diction that actors doing a thick accent would be used to," he said.

cmcbride@herald.ie