Lenny’s backstory is worthy of a character in a Raymond Chandler novel- He had an MA in Theoretical Physics, an almost PHD in Philosophy from Stanford as well as a burgeoning career in Advertising all before he took up independent filmmaking.

His first film Adam & Paul co-written with Mark O Halloran, garnered him the first of three (to date) IFTA’s for Best Director. He followed with Garage, a RTE mini series and in 2014, Frank – starring Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. With his next film Room, based on the bestselling novel, he was nominated for an Best Director Oscar. In the works is an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People for the BBC and The Grand Escape – a WWI story about daredevil pilots.

Join Hugh Oldling Smee as he chats to Lenny about his inspirations, and his life in film and the all important question- why he’d choose to fight one hundred duck-size horses instead of one horse-sized duck.

Belfast Film Festival films will not feature ads or trailers and will, therefore, start at the advertised time.