Bio

Lenny Abrahamson was born in Dublin in 1966. While studying at TCD he set up the Trinity Video Society (now DU Filmmakers) with Ed Guiney. After graduating in philosophy (1st class Hons, Gold Medal) he directed the short film 3 Joes which won the Best European Short Film award at the 1991 Cork Film Festival and the Organiser’s Award at the 1992 Oberhausen Short Film Festival.

Lenny then went on to direct numerous commercials for television in Ireland, the UK and worldwide.

His first feature film, Adam & Paul, written by Mark O’Halloran and produced by Speers Film/Element Pictures, was released in August 2004 and quickly became a critical and box office hit in Ireland. In the same year it won the best first film at the Galway Film Fleadh as well as being nominated for eight Irish Film and Television Awards, winning the award for Best Director. In 2005 it played in Official Selection at the Berlin Film Festival, Panorama section and won both the Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI prize at the Sofia International Film Festival. It was nominated in the European Screenwriter category at the European Film Awards in the same year. Adam & Paul opened in the UK in June 2005 to the best reviews for an Irish film in over a decade. It went on to win the Best Screenplay prize at the 2006 London Evening Standard Film Awards.

His second feature, Garage, also written by Mark O’Halloran and produced by Ed Guiney of Element Pictures, had its international premiere in Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2007 where it won the CICAE prize. It has also been seen as an official selection at many other film festivals, including Toronto, Pusan, London, Stockholm and Turin.

After Garage, Abrahamson and O’Halloran once again collaborated on Prosperity, a series of four one-hour TV films, produced by Element Pictures for RTÉ and broadcast in Autumn 2007.