Irish animators were tonight being tipped for success after receiving Oscar nominations.
The Secret of Kells is one of five films up for Best Animated Feature, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty was nominated for Best Animated Short Film and The Door was been nominated in the Best Short Film category.
The Secret of Kells, which stars actor Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally with music by Kila, was mostly and-drawn and took three years to complete. It gets its US premiere in Boston on St Patrick's Day.
Paul Young, producer and chief executive of Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon which is behind the film, said the nomination was a massive shock. "It fairly much came out of the blue. We didn't think we had a hope up against
the massive amount of studio films - there's some fairly high quality films released this year," he said.
"We just assumed we would not make it to the top five. It's a big surprise."
The producer said the Disney hit Up! was favourite to take the award, before adding: "But maybe they'll give it to the underdogs."
Directed by Tomm Moore, the joint Irish, French and Belgian production tells the story of an orphan named Brendan who is set the task of completing the Book of Kells and in the process earns a new life of creativity and imagination where adventure, danger and action await him.
"It harks back to old school and our animation suits the style of the film," Mr Young said.
Brown Bag Films received a nomination for Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, the second time the Dublin-based animators have been up for an Oscar. They were first nominated in 2002 for the short film Give Up Your Auld Sins.
It tells the story of a supposedly sweet old lady who loses the plot as she tells her granddaughter her version of Sleeping Beauty.
Darragh O'Connell, producer, said: "It was a bit more worrying this time. Before I thought, 'you haven't a hope, you're from Ireland, you shouldn't be at the Oscars' but this time we thought maybe we could ... maybe you do have a shot."
The Door, written and directed by Juanita Wilson and produced by Octagon Films, is based on the true story of a father and his young daughter set in Russia in 1986.
Simon Perry, Irish Film Board chief executive, said an Oscar nomination was the best possible endorsement. "This is a great day for the Irish film industry," Mr Perry said. "For the The Secret of Kells, produced by an independent studio in Kilkenny, to beat off competition from the major US animation studios and win a Best
Animated Feature Oscar nomination is an enormous achievement."
Other Irish nominees include animator Richard Baneham for Best Visual Effects category for his work on Avatar.
And Peter J Devlin, originally from Northern Ireland and now living in Los Angeles, nominated for Best Achievement in Sound for his work on Star Trek.
Minister for the Arts Martin Cullen led tributes to Ireland's five nominees and the success of the domestic film industry. "We are truly boxing and winning way above our weight here and to make the final lists is a testimony to the film-craft of our industry," he said.