Producer Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures is stepping out for his fifth Oscars ceremony

Oscars week is full on when your work is nominated across four categories, and even more so when you’re one of the many Irish nominees in Hollywood ahead of the big day on Sunday. Andrew Lowe, co-founder of Element Pictures alongside Ed Guiney, has been spending his days between Irish celebrations like the Oscar Wilde Awards and the Consulate General of Ireland and Screen Ireland brunch, and nominee-exclusive lunches, screenings and producer-only events. It’s hectic, but Andrew is well used to it at this stage.

“We arrived out on Tuesday, and this is my sixth or seventh trip to LA since we launched Bugonia at the end of August last year between the Governors Awards and the Golden Globes and the Nominees Luncheon. This is where it really ramps up,” he tells me. “It’s our fifth time at the Oscars, and each time is different, and in truth this time around there’s a little less pressure, because the expectations aren’t as high as they would have been on other occasions.”

“One of the great things about the whole experience is that you get to build a camaraderie with other producers who in theory you’re competing with, but really you’re colleagues in the endeavour of films and getting them out in the world. I know Sunday will be special, and there are pinch-me moments.”

Of course we have to talk after parties. Where do the Irish slink off to once they’re played out of the ceremony? “Going to a party after the Oscars is a bit like going to a 21st, you feel you know everyone in the room but you have to check yourself because you don’t actually know them, you just recognise them from the screen. We don’t take any of this for granted, and we work with such brilliant talent, and that’s why we’re here. The team at Element Pictures in Dublin and London and all their hard work is contributing to that success too, so it’s a real team effort.”

Andrew took something of a circuitous route into the industry, graduating from Trinity with a Languages degree in 1991 at a very pivotal time for the Irish film industry. “Things were really starting to evolve at that point,” Andrew says. “Neil Jordan had Oscar success for The Crying Game, Jim Sheridan had My Left Foot, Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day Lewis had their amazing wins and there was a lot of buzz. I loved cinema and was interested in film, and I went to a talk in my final year of college by a producer and listening to him talk was a real light bulb moment for me. I realised that was a real job and I decided then and there that I wanted to work in film, without really understanding how to actually do that.”

Opting to train as a chartered accountant, Andrew began working in the industry as a freelance production accountant before he had finished his studies. “It was a great way of learning how films get made,” he says, “You’re essentially a financial controller, because everything passes through the accounts department.”

Element Pictures are longtime collaborators with Yorgos Lanthimos since The Lobster, starring Colin Farrell, in 2015. Emma Stone entered their professional sphere with The Favourite and later, Poor Things. Each of these projects are bold and experimental, with a real arthouse narrative. I wonder how a producer goes about balancing the visions of a storyteller like Yorgos Lanthimos with the logistics required to make it such a commercial success.

“Any project we do, we never set out to make it a commercial success. All we can do is focus on the quality of the work and make sure that we do the very best job that we can,” Andrew tells me. “Yorgos is a filmmaker absolutely at the top of his game, and so part of our job as producers is surrounding him with good people who will push the boat out and do the very best job they can. Over the years we’ve gathered a team of people who work in a recurring fashion with Yorgos, so there’s a short hand there. Robbie Ryan is a great example, a brilliant cinematographer, he and Yorgos have a great working relationship and he’s done such beautiful work on all of Yorgos’ films since The Favourite.”

Andrew’s co-producer Emma Stone is nominated in the same category as our own Jessie Buckley, but patriotic ties win out over the professional on this occasion. “Jessie Buckley is competing with Emma Stone for Best Actress, but in truth we’re rooting for Jessie because it’s such an amazing performance from her and she’s done so brilliantly so far throughout awards season, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that she’ll be announced as the winner. We’re so pleased for her,” he says. “Emma is a close collaborator of ours and she’s a producer on Bugonia and we love her to death. Jessie’s definitely the favourite to beat, and we’ll be crossing our fingers for her on Sunday.”

You’ve likely read this a million times this week but once more for good measure: The Irish have won more Oscars per capita than any other country. There’s a perception that this happened overnight, but the wheels have been turning in the background for quite a while now. I ask Andrew what can be done to sustain this level of energy, and what the future of cinema looks like in his mind.

“First and foremost, the work of Screen Ireland is really important to developing the talent. They do a lot by way of investing in various schemes and developing production on feature films and that’s what’s really critical to ensure that the new wave of talent is getting opportunities.”

“Collectively, for all of us, the prize is to just to better work and to create films that engage a global audience, not just a local audience. If it works in Ireland, it should travel and work internationally,” Andrew says. “It’s a constantly evolving thing and there’s obviously a lot of interest in Irish culture and stories coming from Ireland and Irish filmmakers and storytellers, so it makes it that little bit easier to garner interest for the next thing. The onus is on all of us to continue to strive to make excellent work and hopefully, if you do that, from time to time it will get recognised.”

Long may it continue!

Cast image via (Andrea Avezzu). Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia. All Bugonia imagery via Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features © 2025.