(Director) - Irish director Pat O'Connor began his career as a documentary producer/director for Radio Telefis Eirann (RTE), and won a British Academy Award for his 1982 TV drama The Ballroom of Romance. His first feature film, Cal (1984), an uncompromising political thriller set against the backdrop of violence in Northern Ireland, won widespread critical acclaim and earned star Helen Mirren the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. O'Connor's subsequent films include A Month in the Country (1987) starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branaugh; Stars and Bars (1988) starring Daniel Day Lewis, Martha Plimpton and Joan Cusack; The January Man (1989), written by John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck) and starring Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon and Harvey Keitel; Fool of Fortune (1990) starring Julie Christie and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio; Circle of Friends (1995) with Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver; and Inventing The Abbotts (1996), starring Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix and Billy Crudup. O'Connor also directed TNT's haunting diary of the psychologically-marred love affair between Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda, starring Natasha Richardson and Timothy Hutton.

Click to read Pat O'Connor's thoughts on Dancing at Lughnasa

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