For Your Consideration - Academy Awards® 2024 Best Live Action Short

Available to view in the Academy Screening Room

An ordinary day takes a sinister turn for a woman and her child when a stranger walks into their isolated rural home.

Aoife Duffin

Éanna Hardwicke

Written and Directed by Sinéad O’Loughlin

Produced by Lara Hickey

Lamb is a Screen Ireland Focus Short produced by Copper Alley Productions

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS AND AWARDS

Tribeca Festival (USA)

Flickrs Rhode Island International Film Festival (USA) FIRST PRIZE BEST SCREENPLAY

Galway Film Fleadh (IRL)

Cork International Film Festival (IRL) AUDIENCE AWARD BEST SHORT FILM

IFTA Awards (IRL) NOMINEE BEST SHORT

Santa Barbara International Film Festival (USA)

Dublin International Film Festival (IRL) BEST SHORT FILM

Manchester Film Festival (UK)

Bengaluru International Film Festival (IND) BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM

Show Me Shorts (NZ)

Uppsala Short Film Festival (SWE)

Women in Film & TV Ireland (IRL) BEST SCRIPT

Crystal Palace Film Festival (UK)

Catalyst International Film Festival (IRL)

Achill Island Film Festival (IRL)

Fastnet Film Festival (IRL) BEST SOUND DESIGN

Beara Film Festival (IRL) BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Dublin Independent Film Festival BEST SHORT FILM

Aesthetica Film Festival (UK)

Boyne Valley International Film Festival (IRL)

Bleeding Pig Film Festival (IRL) AUDIENCE AWARD BEST SHORT FILM

Meath Film Festival (IRL)

Spookscreen Film Festival (IRL) BEST DIRECTOR

Disappear Here Film Festival (IRL) BEST ACTOR

Louth International Film Festival (IRL) BEST ACTOR, HONOURABLE MENTION- BEST DIRECTOR

Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival (IRL)

Offline (IRL)

Kerry International Film Festival (IRL)

Dark Hedges Film Festival (IRL) BEST IRISH SHORT, BLOODY WOMAN AWARD

Ennis International Film Festival (IRL) BEST IRISH SHORT

Still Voices Film Festival (IRL)

Waterford Film Festival (IRL) HONOURABLE MENTION

PRESS

  • "Tense and highly uncomfortable, Lamb is a portrayal of how entitled men feel to the space and comfort of women...

    Ygraine Hackett-Cantabranam, Dread Central

  • "Lamb delivers an edge-of-your-seat ending that will leave you breathless...Sinking into its unsuspecting horror–slow, like quicksand...O’Loughlin crafts a feeling of dread and trepidation..... Masterfully portrayed by Hardwicke....The performances were beautifully nuanced and tucked into this unsettling plot..."

    Kelly Kearney, Starry Mag

  • "pulls you in and leaves you on edge so quickly, simply and efficiently...O’Loughlin presents an oppressive frame that’s open-ended, eerie and engrossing"

    Luke Dunne, Film in Dublin

  • "a powerful and dark piece of filmmaking"

    Cara O'Doherty, The Echo

  • "An eerie short worth your attention..Hardwicke is so good at what he does it’s scary..The tension is so great it’s impossible to bear at times"

    Mark Ziobro, The Movie Buff

  • "O’Loughlin weaves a masterful web of suspense...O’Loughlin ratchets up the tension at a practically unbearable pace"

    Joseph Perry, Horror Fuel

  • "Lamb is slow-burning, tension rising, subtly threatening and smartly written"

    Rebecca Cherry, Film Carnage

  • "It’s undeniably terrifying watching the ease at which Hardwicke makes the stranger come alive....Lamb is a calling card of homegrown terror in a single chamber"

    Douglas Davidson, Elements of Madness

  • "Dear God what a film"

    Steve Kopian, Unseen Films