Hunger (2008 film)

Hunger
UK release poster
Directed by	Steve McQueen
Written by	Enda Walsh Steve McQueen
Produced by	Laura Hastings-Smith Robin Gutch
Starring	Michael Fassbender Liam Cunningham
Cinematography	Sean Bobbitt
Edited by	Joe Walker
Music by	David Holmes Leo Abrahams
Production companies	Film4 Channel 4 Northern Ireland Screen Broadcasting Commission of Ireland Wales Creative IP Fund
Distributed by	Pathé Distribution
Release dates	15 May 2008 (2008-05-15) (Cannes Film Festival) 31 October 2008 (2008-10-31) (United Kingdom)
Running time	96 minutes[1]
Countries	Ireland United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£1.7 million[2]

Hunger is a 2008 historical drama film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It was directed by Steve McQueen (in his feature directorial debut) and starred Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, and Liam McMahon.

It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival,^[3] winning the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.^[4] It went on to win the Sydney Film Prize at the Sydney Film Festival, the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics, best picture from the Evening Standard British Film Awards, and received two BAFTA nominations, winning one. The film was also nominated for eight awards at the 2009 IFTAs, winning six at the event.

The film stars Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member who led the second IRA hunger strike and participated in the no wash protest (led by Brendan "The Dark" Hughes) in which Irish republican prisoners tried to regain political status after it had been revoked by the British government in 1976. It outlines events in the Maze Prison in the period leading up to the hunger strike and its aftermath.