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My Left Foot
Sign in to saveAlso known as My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
1989 film directed by Jim Sheridan
OverviewAI-generated
My Left Foot is a 1989 British and Irish biographical drama film directed and written by Jim Sheridan. The cast includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Ray McAnally, Brenda Fricker, and Fiona Shaw, with music composed by Elmer Bernstein. Based on the work of Christy Brown, the narrative is set in Dublin during the 20th century. The film was produced by Ferndale Films, Granada Television, and RTÉ, and distributed by Stephen Woolley.
The movie has a runtime of 103 minutes and is presented in English. It received nominations for the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress. The film won the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, as well as the National Board of Review: Top Ten Films. It is part of the Museum of Modern Art collection and is available in video on demand format.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.5No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
Cast
- Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown
- Brenda Fricker as Mrs. Brown
- Alison Whelan as Sheila
- Kirsten Sheridan as Sharon
- Declan Croghan as Tom
- Eanna MacLiam as Benny
Themes
- bodily disabled person
- poet
- biography
- based on true story
- foot
- flashback
- author
- working class
- disabled
- cerebral palsy
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Key facts
- Directed by
- Jim Sheridan
- Screenplay by
- Shane Connaughton Jim Sheridan
- Based on
- My Left Foot , by Christy Brown
- Produced by
- Noel Pearson
- Starring
- Daniel Day-Lewis Ray McAnally Brenda Fricker Cyril Cusack Fiona Shaw Hugh O'Conor Adrian Dunbar Ruth McCabe Alison Whelan
- Cinematography
- Jack Conroy
- Edited by
- J. Patrick Duffner
- Music by
- Elmer Bernstein
- Production companies
- Ferndale Films Granada Film Raidió Teilifís Éireann
- Distributed by
- Palace Pictures
- Release date
- 24 February 1989 ( 1989-02-24 )
- Running time
- 103 minutes
- Countries
- Ireland United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Budget
- £600,000
- Box office
- $14.7 million
via Wikipedia infobox
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown is a 1989 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jim Sheridan (in his directorial debut) and adapted by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton from the 1954 memoir by Christy Brown. A co-production of Ireland and the United Kingdom, it stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Brown, an Irish man born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. Brown grew up in a poor working-class family and became a writer and artist. Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Hugh O'Conor, Fiona Shaw, and Cyril Cusack are featured in supporting roles.
The film was theatrically released on 24 February 1989 to critical acclaim and commercial success, grossing $14.7 million on a £600,000 budget. Reviewers praised the film's screenplay, direction, message, and especially the performances of Day-Lewis and Fricker. At the 62nd Academy Awards, the film received five nominations, including Best Picture, with Day-Lewis and Fricker winning Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. In 2018, the British Film Institute ranked it as the 53rd greatest British film of the 20th century.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “My Left Foot” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.