Benjamin Cleary

Benjamin Cleary is an Irish writer-director who rose to international prominence with his debut short film Stutterer (2015), a tender portrait of a lonely typographer whose severe stutter keeps the world at a distance — until an online relationship threatens to unravel his carefully guarded silence.

The film, which screened as a Manhattan Short Film Festival finalist, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016, making Cleary one of the youngest Irish filmmakers to take home an Oscar. The win was shared with producers Shan Christopher Ogilvie and Serena Armitage.

Cleary’s approach to filmmaking favors emotional precision over spectacle. His scripts explore communication barriers — linguistic, technological, and emotional — with a sensitivity that critics have compared to the quiet observational work of Andrea Arnold. Following his Oscar success, Cleary moved into feature development, continuing to draw from his Dublin roots and his interest in the gap between what people say and what they mean.

Finalist Filmography

• Stutterer — Manhattan Short 2015 Finalist