Sarah Bolger to be Honored at Sixth Annual “Oscar Wilde: Honoring the Irish in Film"

Actress Sarah Bolger will be honored at the sixth annual "Oscar Wilde: Honoring the Irish in Film," on 24 February at The Ebell of Los Angeles. She will be presented with the “Wilde Card” award, which was inaugurated last year to honor rising talent in the film industry. The invite-only, pre-Academy Awards party is hosted by the US-Ireland Alliance and sponsored by Culture Ireland, the Irish Film Board and American Airlines.

Also being honored this year will be casting agents Ros and John Hubbard. Singer and actress Maria Doyle Kennedy will perform. Ms. Doyle Kennedy was cast by the Hubbard’s in "The Commitments", the iconic Irish film that marks its twentieth anniversary in 2011.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Bolger is already a veteran actor. She won a place at the Young Peoples Theatre Co. at just five years of age. Less than a year later, she was chosen to star in the poignant real life story “A Love Divided” (1999), directed by Sid McCartney. Thereafter followed a role in the TV movie “A Secret Affair” (1999) based on the Barbara Taylor Bradford novel.

It was in 2001, when selected by Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan to star alongside her real life sister Emma in the major motion picture, “In America,” that Bolger earned worldwide critical acclaim. Her portrayal of Christy, a young girl holding her emotionally drained family together, won a ten year-old Bolger rave reviews around the world, and brought with it nominations for “Best Newcomer “at the Independent Spirit Awards and “Best Cast Ensemble” at the Screen Actors Guild, along with many other nominations for best actress and best newcomer in various award ceremonies worldwide. Jim Sheridan welcomed the upcoming award for Bolger saying, "She was already a great actress when she was 12 and she has only got better and I am mad to work with her again before she wins an Oscar.”

For television, Bolger has completed roles in many acclaimed television dramas, such as RTE’s “The Clinic” (2005), “Stardust,” (2006), and the hugely popular ongoing Showtime/BBC series “The Tudors” in which she plays Mary Tudor.

On the big screen Bolger starred alongside Andie McDowell in the motion picture “Tara Road” (2005), directed by Gilles McKinnon. In 2006 she was seen in “Stormbreaker,” starring alongside Mickey Rourke and Bill Nighy, and in 2008 she impressed audiences with her impeccable American accent in “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” More recently Sarah has filmed “Iron Cross,” directed by Joshua Newton and vampire thriller “The Moth Diaries,” directed by Mary Harron.

In 2009 Sarah was selected to be the Irish Shooting Star at the Berlin Film Festival, and in 2010 she won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “The Tudors.”

Past honorees of the award have included J.J. Abrams, Saoirse Ronan (the first recipient of the “Wilde Card”, Seamus McGarvey, Hylda Queally, Brendan Gleeson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Fiona Shaw, Colm Meaney, Jim Brooks, Van Morrison, Bill Monahan, Terry George, Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan and David Holmes.