THIS year’s film industry awards night will be lacking the usual tension but not the excitement for a former Denbigh man - because he knows he cannot lose.

Ed Bruce, originally from Trefnant, is in the remarkable position of being behind all four nominations in the Visual Effects (VFX) category in the 2020 Irish Film and Television Awards.

The former Denbigh High School pupil is head of the Dublin-based company Screenscene which has won numerous awards over the past 10 years for its work on a variety of projects including dramas and big-budget productions.

Mr Bruce, 42, was supervisor on three of the films which have been nominated – The Irishman, starring Robert de Niro and Al Pacino, which was nominated for an Oscar, The Favourite, for which Olivia Colman won the Best Actress Oscar, and We Have Always Lived in The Castle, the adaptation of the mystery novel by Shirley Jackson.

The fourth nomination, for the cult programme Game of Thrones, was the work of Ed’s Screenscene colleagues Jim O’Hagan and Roland Gantly.

The Irishman ‘de-aged’ the likes of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino by four decades. About 300 of the 750 completed shots in the three-and-a-half hour film featured the de-ageing, which involved markerless 2-dimensional technology.

The work was recognised with a visual effects Oscar nomination among nine others received by the Martin Scorsese film, including best picture and costume design.

The virtual Irish Film and Television awards ceremony is expected to be held sometime in September due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Bruce, whose parents Roger and Laraine Bruce, still live in Trefnant, gained a degree in product design before developing an interest in 3D models. He moved to Ireland in 2000 and became a VFX supervisor in 2007.

Taking to Twitter to express his joy at the quadruple nomination, he said: "So incredibly proud of amazing team. All four of the Best VFX nominations at the IFTA 2020 Irish Film and Drama Awards.

"What a special crew we have in SSVFX. Bravo and Kudos."